Kickapoo.  It’s a fun word to say, don’t you think?  An so many connotations. It’s an Algonquin word meaning “one who goes here, then there.”  And the name of a native American tribe, and also a river that runs through the gorgeous Driftless region of southwest Wisconsin.  It’s a perfect name for this river, because it meanders all through the region.

Only a few short weeks and I’ll be traveling there to appear at the Kickapoo Country Fair.  It’s Organic Valley’s annual gift to their neighbors and is a stellar festival of farmers and their kindred friends.

I wanted to give you plenty of notice, because if you can make the trip, I’ve got a yogurt smoothie with your name on it! I’ll be blending up smoothies and grilling cheese sandwiches at the kitchen tent.  There’s also live music, authors, farm tours and of course delicious organic food.  This year I’m looking forward to hearing Temple Grandin, the animal welfare expert who has dramatically changed the way livestock animals are slaughtered.  She also has the distinction of having Claire Danes play her in a movie about her life.

Come join me at the fair

And more than that, I want you to be my guest.  The fair organizers are serving up goodies for me to give away.  I have four fair passes (a $40 value) five product coupons (a $50 value) and a reusable Organic Valley bag.  And I’m offering a second prize, four more coupons for drinkable yogurt for folks who may want to enter but aren’t sure you can make the trip to LaFarge. These are the coupons Organic Valley gave me for recipe testing, and I enjoyed the yogurt so much I wanted to share.

The festival is in LaFarge, Wisconsin on July 24 & 25.

Enter in the comments!  Tell me about your favorite organic farmer, about your favorite farm experience, or your favorite Organic Valley product.  Winners will be pulled at random on Friday, July 2 at 11 a.m. central time.

If you don’t know about Organic Valley, it’s a farmer-owned cooperative of more than 1600 farmer owners.  Of course they are organic, meaning they produce without chemicals, and they also place a great importance on herd health by requiring that cows spend more time on pasture, which is not necessarily the case with other organic producers, and definitely not the case with commercial herds.

If you might not be able to travel to the fair, comment anyway.  I’m always looking for stories of people who love their farmers.  And cows.

Update: comments will be accepted until July 7 at noon due to my tech snafu!

If you enjoy this post, please consider subscribing to my newsletter, or my feed. Or tweet with me!  Photo and recipe compliments of Janine MacLachlan, www. RusticKitchen.com.  All rights reserved.

Meet Teresa Birtles of Heartland Family Farm in Indiana. Teresa sells at the Bloomington Community Farmers Market, but mostly she grows custom crops for chefs like Jeff Finch of Finch’s Brasserie and Dave Tallent of Restaurant Tallent.

Her focus on flavor guides her to choose countless heirloom vegetables.  And she thinks about what goes together on the plate, choosing foods like fennel and herbs that might make a great sauce with her Roma tomatoes.

What are your favorite tomato recipe links we should think about?  Yes, tomatoes are months away in the Midwest but outdoor markets open in a few weeks and we can start to dream.

Please share your thoughts so I can start salivating!  I’ll start:  panzanella.

Farmer Friday is a weekly quick-post featuring farmers I met on my research road trip across eight Midwestern states.  If you’re interested in local food, please subscribe to my newsletter, ormy feed. Or tweet with me!

Photos compliments of Janine MacLachlan, www.RusticKitchen.com.  All rights reserved.

Meet Shelley McGeathy of McGeathy Farm in Hemlock, Michigan.  Shelley grows about a million vibrant cut flowers to sell at the Downtown Saginaw Farmers Market each year, where she also serves as executive director.

This market is particularly dear to me, because I grew up in Saginaw and love to see a thriving market in an area that’s experienced some hard times given the continuous auto industry decline.  The downtown core is a quiet place these days, but the farmers market was bustling with shoppers of all stripes.

The Saginaw market has been around since 1910.  Like many markets, it has moved locations, occasionally taking a hiatus, but has been going strong in its current configuration since 1992.

A little help, please.

Speaking of flowers, can anyone help identify this cute little one?  A number of them popped in my garden and I’m mystified.  All thoughts welcome.

Farmer Friday is a weekly quick-post featuring farmers I met on my research road trip across eight Midwestern states.  If you’re interested in local food, please subscribe to my newsletter, ormy feed. Or tweet with me!

Photos compliments of Janine MacLachlan, www.RusticKitchen.com.  All rights reserved.

Just a picture post today, of Evergreen Lane Creamery, on 66th Street in lovely Fennville, Michigan, where they make delicious goat cheese.

Have a great weekend.

Farmer Friday is a weekly quick-post featuring farmers I meet.  If you’re interested in local food, please subscribe to my newsletter, or my feed. Or tweet with me!

Photos compliments of Janine MacLachlan, www.RusticKitchen.com.  All rights reserved.

Meet Dale Jones, one of the founders of Strangers Hill Organics, with Vanessa Caruso, the farm manager.

Strangers Hill sells at the Bloomington, Indiana farmers market, and also has a CSA.  CSA, if you’re not familiar, stands for Community Supported Agriculture, which at its essence is subscription farming.  Members pay at the beginning of the season, when the farmer most needs cash for seeds and equipment.  Every week members collect their share of the harvest.

Fresh food for all

Making fresh, healthy food accessible for all is a big topic these days.  Because it’s produced at a smaller scale and without government subsidies, it’s by nature more expensive.  But people who produce this food feel strongly that it should be for everyone, and many growers are generous by donating to food banks and soup kitchens and other worthy programs.

Strangers Hill has taken it a step further.  They started a great farmshare partner program, where their CSA members, and really anyone else, can underwrite some shares for people who can’t afford the full price.  Hats off to Strangers Hill for creating such a powerful program for people in their community.

Farmer Friday is a weekly quick-post featuring farmers I met on a road trip across the heartland.  If you’re interested in local food, please subscribe to my newsletter, or my feed. Or tweet with me!

Photo compliments of Janine MacLachlan, www.RusticKitchen.com.  All rights reserved.

Meet John and Ralph Payne, a father and son team I met at the farmers market in Independence, Missouri.

The Paynes grow countless vegetable varieties.

And at the next table was Luis Perez, of Perez Peppers who’s married to Ralph’s daughter, John’s sister.

The Independence Farmers Market my award for the most ambitious start time — 5 a.m.  Yes, some people would refer to that as “dark:30.”  Or “o-dark-hundred” on the military clock.

But there they all were, in the pitch black, even before the coffee shops opened, sharing their delicious food along with the morning visiting.

Independence was home to another early riser.

Harry Truman, the 33rd president of the United States, who was known to step out on lively walks after retiring to Independence.

You can visit his house under the guidance of the National Park Service, where you’ll learn that Truman met his future wife Bess Wallace when his aunt sent him across the street to return a cake pan to her mother. This house was initially Bess’s family home.  The Truman Presidential Library and Museum is also well worth a stop.

Farmer Friday is a weekly quick-post featuring farmers I met on my research road trip across eight Midwestern states.  If you’re interested in local food, please subscribe to my newsletter, or my feed. Or tweet with me!

Photos compliments of Janine MacLachlan, www.RusticKitchen.com.  All rights reserved.

I was scrolling through the program for FamilyFarmed Expo in Chicago this weekend and was delighted to see that my Fennville, Michigan neighbors from Pleasant Hill Blueberry Farm are going to be exhibitors this Saturday.

Joan Donaldson and John Von Voorhees grow organic blueberries on 40 acres in southwest Michigan, with the help of Henry and Buck, their team of oxen.  They have a u-pick operation at their farm and also ship frozen berries.  You can order at their site.

I’m so sorry I don’t have a photo of them, so I hope everyone who’s in Chicago this weekend can stop by and meet them in person.

I should mention that Joan is also an author.  Click here to see her site, and also learn about her most recent book On Viney’s Mountain.

About their farm:

Pleasant Hill is a charming farm with authentic, hand-made buildings.  Like this one, where Buck and Henry live with the goats and chickens.  Merlin the Corgi keeps an eye on the entire operation.  All in all, Pleasant Hill is home to two oxen, three goats, four cats, one dog, a canary, and a lot of chickens.  And two people.  My idea of heaven.

The farm was founded by John’s grandfather in 1937, and some of their blueberry bushes date to 1939.  They have farmed organically since 1977 and are certified by the USDA.

And they have a magnificent barn.

Blueberry recipe links from the archives:

• Blueberry lime curd tart
• Blueberry basil preserves
• Easy blueberry thyme galette

And if you score some of Pleasant Hill’s frozen berries before the fresh ones come in season, try my spiced blueberry sauce.

Think about subscribing to my newsletter, or my feed. Or tweet with me! Photos and recipes compliments of Janine MacLachlan, www.RusticKitchen.com.  All rights reserved.

Readers here know that I’m a farm groupie.  That I simply swoon over these folks who work in sweltering weather and get up before dawn to tote their gorgeous food to the farmers market.

Tell me again why I find their lives so enticing? Ah yes, the devotion to quality, connection to the land, confidence that comes with knowing that people are overcome with gratitude for all their hard work.

So I heart farmers every day.

But rarely have I wanted to abscond with anyone’s children. That is until I met the Boehnlein kids at the Shaker Square Farmers Market in Cleveland last fall.

The Boehnleins produce heritage pork and grassfed beef at New Creation Farm in Ohio. First there’s Kaitlyn, here with her mom and grandmother.  Cute or what?

And then little sister Julia.  ”Would you like some pulled pork?”

Yes, indeed, don’t mind if I do.

And then Nicolas, who tells me that their shaggy highland cattle “look like they have highlights.”

Adorable.

And there are four more adorable Boehnlein children.  In fact, parents Kristen and Scott started their farm as a family business that could involve their children. The result is that these young folk love vegetables.  An informal poll revealed tomatoes, green beans and squash among the favorites.

I should mention I’m really just kidding about making off with them (thought I should clarify in case I find the authorities at my door).

But I was not kidding about how delicious their food is.  I found some great blog recipes for pulled pork:

Andrea’s Recipes

Use Real Butter

The Paupered Chef

And this one from Eating Well, one of my favorite magazines.

If you decide to make any of these recipes, please remember to buy your meat from a responsible producer.  The reason farmers market meat costs more is because of the care and feeding of the animals.  It’s worth the extra cash, and not just because of the flavor.

If you enjoy Farmer Friday, please consider subscribing to my newsletter, or my feed. Or tweet with me!  Photo compliments of Janine MacLachlan, www. RusticKitchen.com.  All rights reserved.

Spring must surely be creeping up on us soon, although you can’t tell by today’s weather with a very low wind chill in the midwest and snow storms in the east.  Nonetheless, early spring means maple syrup season, bringing us one of the sweetest of American foods.

Meet Patrick and Tim Burton, the father-son duo behind of Burton’s Maplewood Farm in the rolling hills of Medora, Indiana (pictured in a warmer time).  Each year the Burton family produces 200 gallons gallons of syrup, not an easy feat given that it takes up to 40 gallons of sap to make a gallon of maple syrup.  We’ll explore maple syrup making in an upcoming post.

The Burtons are also host to the National Maple Syrup Festival, scheduled for the first and second weekends in March.  That’s next week and the week after, so if you can get to southern Indiana, you’re surely in for a great time.

The festival is a gathering with great food and live music, and also demonstrations of blacksmithing, butter churning and wool spinning, just the thing to bring back memories of Laura Ingalls, whose maple syrup memories were recently posted at The Kitchn, with a charming excerpt from Little House in the Big Woods.

And from the archives, a few recipes to help you use up last year’s syrup and get ready for another batch.  OK, I linked to a couple for Fat Tuesday (also know as pancake day) but I really can’t get enough maple syrup.  I hope you agree.

What are your favorite recipes for maple syrup?  Send me links in the comments!

From the pantry bread pudding

Polenta waffles with goat cheese

Silver dollar pancakes with maple walnut drizzle

If you enjoy this post, please consider subscribing to my newsletter, or my feed. Or tweet with me!  Recipe links and photo compliments of Janine MacLachlan, www. RusticKitchen.com.  All rights reserved.

Meet Leslie Cooperband of Prairie Fruits Farm, a renaissance woman who’s a soil expert on the faculty of University of Illinois and one of our region’s best goat cheese makers.

Readers here know I have a deep affection for these spirited animals and their cheese, and in future Friday Farmer posts I’ll introduce you to the women behind Capriole in Indiana, Reichert’s Dairy Air in Iowa and Fantome in Wisconsin.

Leslie and her husband Wes Jarrell tend about 70 goats, a blend of Nubian (with the long floppy ears) and Nubian crossed with La Mancha (the little ones whose ears are so small you almost don’t believe they can hear).

Prairie Fruits is the first farmstead goat cheese creamery in Illinois.  The term “farmstead” refers to cheese that’s made from milk produced on the farm.  It implies an intimate operation, with an emphasis on quality.  The flavor?  Sheer delight.

Prairie Fruits offer fresh and aged cheeses, and also a number of seasonal selections.  You can find them at the Urbana farmers market and Green City in Chicago.

And if you find yourself in central Illinois, Prairie Fruits hosts farm dinners, meals enjoyed outdoors at a long table. It’s well worth a visit.  And if you can’t wait for the season to begin, think about heading to the kitchen to enjoy your own local goat cheese:

• Polenta waffles with goat cheese
• Paris vacation onion tart
• Little goat cheese and roasted red pepper biscuit sandwiches.  This post includes a link to a petition to stop a road scheduled to divide the acreage at Prairie Fruits.  It’s the kind of stimulus we certainly don’t need, as we continue to lose valuable farmland to development.  Please take a look and chime in to support local food and small producers.

If you enjoy Farmer Friday, please consider subscribing to my newsletter, or my feed. Or tweet with me!  Photo compliments of Janine MacLachlan, www. RusticKitchen.com.  All rights reserved.