Corn truck

Been pickin corn all week, selling at farmer's markets and gas stations. Exhausted. 

Saturday, the best day of the week

Had a perfect saturday yesterday:

Woke up early to set up the farmer's market - Bruce couldn't be there so we were on our own - I had picked 75lbs of yukon gold and red potatoes from our plot so I was excited to market them. Setting up the market is kind of stressful but completely manageable...there's just a lot of hauling stuff, supplies, food, scales in and out of the PDC. Everything is coming on right now (corn, tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, onions) so it was the most successful market yet - tons of people, everyone in a good mood. What really made it was that we finally got some live music! Jess befriended Charlie at the tomato festival, a young newspaper reporter/musician from Indiana - we've been hanging out with him and he was psyched to play at the market. It totally livened up the scene and made it feel really festive...all the vendors were psyched and told us how much they liked having music. 

Met up with Alvin, who was selling his famous sweet corn, at the market. He wanted help with his bean combine and picking apples. He told me I could use his cider press if I picked his whole tree - it was breezy and sunny, perfect apple picking weather so I agreed. I don't think they can grow a lot of fruit out here, as in BIG fruit like apples and plums, berries are no problem but these apples were tiny. It was no Green Mountain orchard but they were still delicious. I picked from a couple hours and then went over to Alvin's cousin Neil's (kraut maker from a couple entries ago) and picked his crab apples. We hung out there for a while, juicing crab apples, looking a maps of Vermont and North Dakota and talking about the east and the west (this happens all the time, people get out maps to see where I am from, then we talk about our country a lot). Despite being a republican, Neil is a really great guy. (Alvin does this funny thing where every time I meet someone he whispers to me their political beliefs, he's like a political gossip queen) I just have never met so many pure, good hearted people - it's like this whole thing about "real america" is actually true! People ARE really nice! Americans DO help their neighbors and drink beer and shoot shit! 

Anyway, then we went out to get Alvin's bean combine out of storage. This combine is just for beans and the beans are coming on so it was time to crank it up. It was stored in some neighbor's shed and in order to get it to start they had to do a ton of mechanic stuff so I took a nap on some giant tractor tires. It was super beautiful out, not too hot, sunny, breezy - I lay on a tractor and fell asleep with the badlands all around me (I knew there was nothing I could contribute to their combine-fixing. Once they got it started up, I drove Alvin's truck back to the house so he could drive the combine. When we both got in I said to him, "Whew that was a big production," he turned to me and kind of laughed and said "That's just a part of farming, ya do this stuff everyday - move equipment, fix stuff, drive it around" I couldn't help but think about a certain ex-boyfriend of mine in that situation - trying to get something to start for an hour, trying to manuever a giant machine out of a garage by making small turns for 30 minutes - he would've been swearing and sweating and frustrated, totally not in control, impatient, and worse; ANGRY - Alvin was patient, calm, he wasn't angry or annoyed that the combine wouldn't start or that it was stuck in a garage, he just did what he had to do to move it. Simple. No short circuit temper involved. And when it was out, he was neither relieved nor emotionally exhausted, he was just glad he could start combining beans soon. Having a farmer's temperment is essential to farming, otherwise you burn out. I never thought about this before until yesterday. I don't know if I have that calmness, that solid quietness inside me. There might be too much fire...too much passion...

When we got back, I fed apples to the pigs and Alvin and Dena invited me to stay for dinner. Dena is a very interesting woman. While Alvin is talkative and fortcoming with any and all information, Dena is quiet and brooding - a very, very smart fiesty firey woman but it comes out in little spurts. They are quite an fascinating pair. I adore them. Dena is a phenomenal cook, I mean really amazing. She makes everything under the sun, relishes, james, cheeses, yogurts, just EVERYTHING. It turns out, you can make everything yourself and Dena does it. Anyway she made halibut that Alvin had caught in Alaska and fried okra and squash and cucumber yogurt salad and licorice icecream and homebrew. These people love food. In every way one can love food. Growing it, raising it, picking and preserving and canning and cooking and eating it. It's so wonderful. 

Alvin gave me some sweet corn for my neighbor Jessica Beacom, and he and Dena INSISTED on giving me jam, eggs, tomatoes, corn and even some Halibut - they kept asking me what else I needed; potatoes? Beets? flour? "Stop you guys, I'm fine! We can only eat so much!" "Oh please, we are looking after your well being"

Stopped at the Beacom's to drop off corn - ended up staying for an hour and half, getting a tour of their beautiful house that they are remodeling, looked at stunning photos of Jessica when she was pregnant with Lily, with Dean (her husband) resting his head on her stomach - they were such romantic, beautiful, loving photos I actually got emotional looking at them. They are such great people - I turned to Jessica and told her that looking at this album made want to have babies and build a house and be domestic, she just smiled.

I made a green tomato cake with raisins and walnuts and a cinnamon cream cheese frosting with toasted coconut flakes. And I won!!! $25 gift certificate to the local grocery store, a certificate and a trophy.

MMM.... beer

Livestock auction and Red Cabbage

Things have been busy busy since Jess and I returned from CBI in Helena. We checked out of CBI a bit early so we could go to the Art walk in Bozeman on the way home...and ended up staying with Rose Marks ! A friend of mine from highschool who has been going to Montana State U in Bozeman for a year. Rose showed us a good time and we ate sushi at Dave's Sushi and it was the first time Jess and I had gone out in a while (not really any restaurants in the Dive..). We saw lots of good and bad art and drank free wine all over town. Bozeman is a kind of upscale place, it turns out. Very funky but a bit yuppie and expensive, Rose said there's a lot of "gearheads" which translates to a lot of young people who only care about hiking, climbing and skiing and live to do those things.

We had a really great time but had to book it back to Glendive for the Dawson County fair! (We picked up 150# of purple hulless barley on the way though) As soon as we got back we were in Fair mode...we ran the Farm-to-Table booth all day saturday until 10:30pm and then again on Sunday until 5:00 pm. Met lots..and I mean LOTS of interesting people. Some whackos too. Got to talk to a variety of locals about farming and local food and what they believe in. Saw my first ranch rodeo. Ate funnel cake and hamburgers. The best part for me was the livestock auction. Do we even have this in VT? Everyone is dressed up for the fair, cowboy hats, cowboy boots, tucked in collared, ironed cowboy shirts...topped off with a giant belt buckle of course...and at the auction an MC stood in the center of a ring and spewed off numbers so fast I couldn't tell what he was saying let alone determine what language he was speaking. I found out that he was selling beef by the pound. "one dolla, dolla fifteen, dolla twenty, SOLD dolla thirtyfi" SO FAST and everyone had these cards that they kept track of what was being sold and how much etc. Pigs, Cows, Lambs. The deal with the livestock auction is that kids from 4H have raised each one of these animals from birth so they bring them out to the ring, walk them around and then the bidding begins - it's a sort of charity because the animals go for way above market price and people bid because they want the animal, they want to support the kid or both - if they don't want the animal they can resell it on the second go around for market price and the kid gets the money either way. It was very cool. Does Bennington even have a county fair???

Jess and I were kind of tired from the fair since we worked all weekend but we had to get ready for our first party at our house on Monday night - Erin, the extension intern, was finishing up her term so we had a combo goodbye barbeque/housewarming party at our place. Jess and I made sushi and she made steak and around 15 of our news friends came by with beer and food and strawberry daquiris and rhubarb wine, homemade vino and peach cobblers...a lot of foodies and their husbands/wives, kids - we felt like such little adults, throwing a bbq in our backyard with everyone sitting around the fire, socializing (not many people were under 30). Our bosses came (it actually feels weird to even call them our bosses but thats what Bruce and Peggy are I suppose) and everyone was just SO helpful, it was like we didn't have to do that much work at all. It's kind of strange the neighborly-ness of everyone. I guess I'm just not used to people being selfless and helpful basic strangers or something..

The party was super fun - we got emails the next day thanking us, so cute - especially from one of our favorite new friends Jessica Beacom, the dietician who we want to be BFF's with us. She's a super cool, foodie mama with an equally cool nurse husband (long red ponytail) and their kid, Lily - they moved here from Alaska and told me and Jess that they were psyched to have some young blood in the food scene here in Glendive...I'm hoping to work with Jessica B on my Eat-In and local food in schools program!

Yesterday I grinded flour and made my first ever radio appearance on the local stations as an advirtiser for the "First annual Glendive Tomato festival" (I was kind of nervous but they let me record it 3 times to get it just right). The Tomato fest is tonight! And Jess is entering a green tomato cake in the tomato contest...

We also made more sauerkraut last night, this time with Alvin's cousins - lovely people - beautiful evening of kraut making, beer drinking, truck bed riding.

Pictured here is: Alvin in the hat, his friend Lisa from Family Farmers coalition, Jess, Alvin's cousin Neil and myself. That wood thing is the cabbage shredder, a very cool invention designed just for kraut. Alvin warned me not to make any "red cabbage" (aka shredding my fingers.)

As a mixture of drool, butter, and juices of every little kernel on the cob trickle down my chin I declare today's lunch the best of all. It consisted of homemade raw vegan sunflower and pumpkin seed pate rolled in romaine leaves with tomatoes. Along with that was fresh sweet corn from alvins (the tomatoes and romaine from alvins as well). Before I get too into this blog I would like to address a couple of things. First off, I aplogize for not writing more. Cal has done a fantastic job and I will attempt to contribute more of my side of things. Secondly, I suck at grammar, spelling, and apostrophies. These are things I don't care about. Ask me to make you a burre blanc that won't break and now were talking (got it.... good.) I have posted a few pictures of things that have been keeping me very busy. Our awesome coffee table that cal haggled for $10 at the flea market, we brought home and i sanded and stained the whole thing. I love that table. The other two pictures are of our newest housemate. He goes by the name, Zappa Wibeaux. He is about 9 months old and was found in an abandoned trailer. He is a chocolate lab (I disagree) sharpe, terrier mix. We love him. Last weekend bruce and I went to helena for a meeting at the department of agriculture in helena. There were about five organizations total including us, all non-profits looking for $$. Actually the five organizations there are the ones that already got money and now just had to let them know how we were planning on using it. Bruce and I had breakfast at this awesome little place in downtown helena called "no sweat". We met his friend and her co-worker who also work for a non-profit. I listened to their conversation about grants and proposals and ate one of the best tofu scrambles i've had yet. After that we went to the dept of ag downtown. I sat there (the youngest by at least 20 years) took notes, and observed. I can't describe how important I felt. One minute working 16 hour days/nights sauteing seafood dishes for 400+ people in a 110 degree kitchen, the next sitting at a table at the dept of ag in the capital of montana talking non profit with a handlful of people that have been doing this their entire life! Oh, life... it's beautiful, always changing, and never dull. The meeting was from 10-2 (actually like 2:20 because this one lady wouldn't shut up about her personal questions). We left there and did a little thrifting. Thrifting: The act of shopping at a thrift store for things you don't really need but pretend you do because its so damn cheap. After that and a horrible trip to petco (which I choose not to discuss) we were on our way back to glendive WITH 500 LBS of FRESH CHERRIES. Don't ask me what happened, but bruce was talking to some lady and all of a sudden we are loading 500lbs of fresh cherries into the van. We got on the road and returned to glendive at around 2am with about 480lbs of fresh cherries, a stomach ache, and heavy eyes. This week has been fairly easy except for raising a puppy. Now me and cal have to leave tomorrow to go back to helena for CBI (which she already explained). I am beggining to loathe the ride to helena. Beautiful...of course it is, but beauty isn't so beautiful when stared at from a car for 7 hours. At least it will give us a chance to get some things we can't get here in the dive. That could be a whole seperate blog entry. How I've always lived in small towns, but have had access to just about anything within 1-2 hours. Here, if you need something, you order it offline, or wait for a trip to helena. Its good though because I don't spend any money when i'm here. Well, I'm getting up early tomorrow to drive to north dakota where our good friend cole is going to watch the pup for me while we're gone. Tonight: one more walk to the park and much needed sleep.

Long Day, "Thumb's Up"

Not sure why, really. Monday morning planning meeting...found out we had to go to Community Building Institute (i.e. more Americorps training) in Helena on thursday-friday. This means we have to leave wednesday night, it's an 8 hour drive. There's this funny thing about the west and the east sides of Montana, it kind of reminds me of how the rest of Vermont feels about Burlington. Burlington is some hippie oasis big city that is not in touch with the rest of the state or really have anything in common with the struggling, blue collar, farmers of the northeast or south. According to eastern Montanans, western montana is filled with the ominous "californians" also known as "dudes" (I learned this from Cole, who taught me about wranglers and dudes and dude wranglers the other night...dudes are tourists, dude wranglers are tourguides) and hippies and rich liberals and everything is "california prices" in the western part of the state...

Now I started talking about this because the west also forgets about the east. I'm in the east. Where there's more sagebrush per square mile than people, cattle or roads..and there's just not a lot going on out here. But "not a lot" is a relative term. Because I did SO much today. And the people I spent time with today were also doing SO MUCH...and it just felt like a lot was going on! What I'm trying to say is...it's totally ridiculous that Jess and I have to travel all the way west for an Americorps training that's barely even a day long, it's just totally biased and inconsiderate and even Americorps doesn't care if we have to drive 400 miles because we're in eastern montana and we don't matter.

So I dealt with getting ready for this CBI thing...which until today I thought we had gotten out of and it turns out we didn't so I had to do a bunch of paperwork answering questions about the progress of our non-profit and the state of our community/community need/deficit and the strategies that Farm-to-Table are implementing in order to deal with food insecurity.

watered potatoes and sweet potatoes.

looked at the fair grounds and saw where our booth is going to be (county fair is this friday-sunday, BIG deal)

got some things ready for Fair. going to try and be back from Helena early-ish friday so we can catch the Dawson county rodeo.

and finally...made it out to Alvins because we had a sauerkraut date and I had been looking forward to it all day. Jess bailed because she wanted to make a fence for OUR NEW PUPPY ZAPPA WIBAUX!!!!!!!! and so I made kraut with Alvin and his friend Bill and Bill's son Ben, we picked cabbages from the garden that were 5lbs each (at least), cut them in half, shredded 30 lbs of cabbage in this special cabbage sauerkraut shredder (specifically for this purpose, ingenious), and then I was in charge of mixing the shredded cabbage and 1 tablespoon of pickling salt for very 2 lbs of cabbage in this huge bin (my arms felt like they had spent too much time in the ocean, you know kind of stingy?). The pickling salt sucks out all the water from the cabbage so the cabbage starts to go limp and water foams all around and pretty soon I was literally up to my elbows in cabbage and cabbage salty foam and then that's it! We pressed it down and put a bag of water on top to seal it off so it could ferment. No water added. No spices or extra salt. Just the pickling salt, cabbage and something to seal it. It will sit for two weeks and then afterwards, Bill and Ben will have 30 lbs of kraut on their hands and God only knows what they're gonna do with it! (I suggested Christmas presents)

Alvin, Bill, Ben and I had a funny conversation while we were krauting (I just made that word up and it's pretty baller)...I told them that my parents hadn't known where Montana was when I moved out here, they literally had to look it up on a map because they didn't believe me when i told them "No, it does not border Colorado and Arizona". Bill was incredulous, perhaps even offended at this "You're parents are educated? Intellectuals you say?!?!" He had this ruddy face, and red hair (!) with a big belly but was clearly built like a cowboy, with boots and wrangler jeans and all and I was a bit scared when I thought I had actually offended him...(he makes saddles for a living, gorgeous saddles, all over his house) but then I asked him what state was south of VT and NH and he had NO IDEA. "Massachusetts! See?! Us east coasters aren't the only ones forgetting about the other half of the country" 

Bill's son had ripped off his thumb roping and Bill insisted he show it to me, where the thumb had been there was now Ben's second toe, sewn on. It was insane.

After kraut making, it was around 6pm and I thought I would grab some lettuce from Alvin's and head home. Oh no. Alvin had other plans. First we drove out to his wheat field and he made me guess how many acres of Spring Wheat he had. (The last time he did this with a hay field I had guessed 5 acres when it was 15...no sense of space and size out here) This time I was generous and guessed 150 acres when it was only 65. Well shit. Imma get better at it, jus gotta stare at sommore wheat fields thas all. We moved irrigation pipe so he could cut clover. Then he taught me how to drive the four wheeler (everyone drives them out here, it's like Thais with their motorcycles except its farmers with their ATVs), very fun and we went and picked some of the first ripe sweet corn of the season, picked lettuce, fixed an irrigation channel on the way home, drank a Heineken (laughed about Erin never drinking a Heineken, ha I love you Erin) and was back on Prospect dr. by 8...whew. 

On the drive home, saw the sun set over alfalfa on highway 10. There are not many things in the world that can make you feel that good.

Out to the field and down to the pasture

The last couple days I learned the ins and outs of Western Trails food and essentially how to operate your own food company. Check.

I mixed flapjack mixes in the measuring room and organized orders for Jess and Bruce's trip to Helena. Western Trails doesn't have a distributor, this means that we rely solely on people volunteering to drop off our products around the state whenever they go west. For five years it has worked because, as I'm learning more and more everyday, Montana is like a small town despite its size. Anyway, Shirley (our elderly volunteer paid by a federal program) and I ground flour and measured out rolled barley flakes and beans and flax seed, sealed bags and stamped sell by dates. Shirley is a wonderful woman, mother of 5, great grandmother of 2, her husband died of asthma in North Dakota 15 years ago - and she is so adorable and funny, really funny - anyway, Jess and I have been enjoying her quite a bit recently.

Today we got up early and picked raspberries at Sue Price's in Savage (so many) and then back in Glendive I mixed bags of rolled barley and flax seed with Shirley (we wear hairnets, labcoats and rubber gloves, it's great). Then Alvin called me to come down to his farm for our tractor driving lesson/onion pulling fest and I told him I had all these raspberries but didn't know what to do with them (seriously so many...jam? pie? wine?). When I got to Alvin's, he had prepared two pie crusts for his wife Dena's Raspbery Cheesecake Cream pie...ohhhhmaannnn. The rest of the afternoon went as follows:

Tractor lesson. (I drove a combination automatic/standard John Deere around Alvin's field, down shifted, up shifted reversed! The whole deal! Alvin is a great teacher and LOVES explaining things in painstaking but necessary detail, very patient and thorough in the way that so many farmers are...detail detail detail - encouraging, safe)

Raspberry mashing.

Onion de-weeding.

Irrigation channel fixing.

Pie making, cream cheese mixing, pie filling

Sheep herding, beer drinking, shit shooting

Bed Sleeping.

read this article in NYTimes today by Michael Pollan

Our weekend; Farmer's Market, Fort Peck

Sailing with our boss in Fort Peck, MT

This is me concentrating really hard on steering the boat (Mike Iba would yell at me when we zigzagged. It felt like home) Mike and Jess in the background. The Ibas (my boss) are wonderful people who invited us to their lakehouse for the weekend.

More steering and chilling

Land ho

Waterskiing at Fort Peck, a little terrified

Then I got the hang of it (Mike and Peggy)

When you waterski, everyone in the boat watches you the whole time. It's embarrassing so I laughed a lot.

Jess didn't waterski. Jess drank beer.

Peggy Iba, my boss, pictured here was at one time the "best skiier on the lake"

Drive up to Fort Peck, baaaadddddlannnndssss and straight roads

Farmer's market

Jess, Cal and Erin at the Farmer's Market

One of my favorite families I've met in Glendive, the Tennants! They make cinnamon buns and fry breads every saturday during the farmer's market and are super involved in foodie stuff here. The kids are awesome.

Jess talking with the Tennants, behind them you can see one of our hoop houses

The Farmer's Market is held right in front of where I work, the Prairie Development Center or PDC - here it is pictured. That's a powerplant next to a wealth of organic food. Let's not talk about it.

Cole Germann, the superintendent's son, came by one night and taught us how to "jitterbug". He trains horses in western North Dakota and sleeps on our couch sometimes. He's taking us shooting soon and said he would teach us how to ride in his free time! Oh, Cole, you cowboy you...(we have the same size feet)

To Mom on Monday night, 10:14 p.m.

very proud of you mom. I think this is most definitely a step in the right direction.

My heart strings were aching to talk to everyone tonight...whats funny is that it hurt so much mostly because I knew exactly what it was like, I knew what jokes were being made and what you were eating and what people were thinking and who was sad and who was drunk...and right now, I don't even know what I am going to do tomorrow! Every day brings something new. And I keep learning abotu myself. it is so strange to discover new things about yourself. and about america. and about humanity in general. but especially about america! i do get sad when i think about my friends and family, it seems unfair to not be able to love what your doing and have everyone you love around you at the same time..but I guess I've just switched places from new york to montana and thats what happens. I, too, am applying to grad school...but more on that later...

I saw Into the Wild over the weekend and it had the most profound, unnerving, anxiety provoking, inspiring, heartwrenching effect on me...have you seen it? I can't stop thinking about it, I cried for almost 40 minutes afterwards, it was so intense for me. If you see it or already have, I would like to know your thoughts on why it affected me so much...I have some ideas but I can't figure it out.

My vegan roomate made me steak tonight that I bought from a family at the farmer's market, it was quite good. I haven't had a meal that wasn't completely sourced by (almost entirely) local food since I've been here...(the exceptions: almond milk, crackers, olive oil, veggie burgers, cheese). Tomorrow the funders come and we have been preparing intensely for their visit to wow the pants off them and give us lots of money...its a really funny balance we are trying to strike with these foundations, we want to show them that we are smart and respectable and have lots of potential but also that we are a poor, struggling, and desperate community that needs their money. How to do both? It's strange...

Anyway, I'm going to bed. I love you and think of you everyday. Really and truly. Eat some kohlrabi for me, it'll make you go nuts.

xo c

P.S. this is what it looks like where I live