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Woodstock Times - Food | 9/24/2009 |
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Field trip to Hawthorne Valley
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by Megan Labrise
The air and the apples are crisp, and school's back in session. It's the perfect time for a field trip.
Last week I visited Hawthorne Valley Farm, the 400-acre biodynamic community and educational center in Ghent, a.k.a. Harlemville, in Columbia County. The town is near the Massachusetts border, a winding, wending and scenic hour's drive north of the mid-Hudson bridge.
Harlemville differs from Harlem, Manhattan in a few notable ways. You can buy Demeter-certified raw milk made from the unpasteurized product of grass-fed dairy cows in Harlemville, for example.
Before I could eat my way through some culinary curriculum, I received a philosophy lesson: The Hawthorne Valley "biodynamics" concept of a holistic, self-contained agricultural system one that can "produce everything it needs from within itself" was first espoused by Austrian philosopher Rudolf Steiner in the 1920s. Since 1972, Hawthorne Valley farmers have lived and worked by the tenets of Steiner's "Anthroposophy," or knowledge of man's wisdom. "Anthroposophy, also known as 'spiritual science,' is the underpinning of practical applications in education (Waldorf schools), art, economics, medicine, dance, and movement therapy," states the Hawthorne Valley Farm website (http://www.hawthornevalleyfarm.org).
A few biodynamic practices might trigger what a close friend of mine refers to as her "New Age-ometer." Planting crops, for example, follows the astrological calendar and "rhythmical influences of the cosmos."
But, hey: To everything there is a season, and an optimum time to plant and harvest in each ecological cycle. If someone asked me to explain biodynamics, I'd simply say, "It's naturally delicious."
Take the sauerkraut, for instance. Please. The first stop on my educational tour was the sauerkraut department, headed by krautmeister Seth Travins. The downstairs department processes and packs by hand a dozen delectable lacto-fermented treats: sauerkraut, jalapeo sauerkraut, Korean pickled cabbage/bird flu cure kim chee, carrots and dilly beans, among others.
For the simplest sauerkraut, Travins shreds cabbage, adds Celtic sea salt, and pounds the vegetable until it steeps in its own extracted juices, pressed down by a water-filled weight. The cabbage ages for two months, during which time its essence undergoes the anaerobic dance of fermentation, preserving and giving it that unmistakable tanginess.
Travins can produce up to six 55-gallon barrels per day, each weighing 300 pounds. That's almost a ton of sauerkraut. If they produce 100 barrels per season, how long will it take a reporter to figure out how many pounds they make each season, and how long it takes to do it? Riddle me that, and we've already got our chemistry and mathematics lessons for the day.
Next, I visited a productive department, the bakery, where staffers were pulling dozens of blueberry-lemon-loaf cakes out of the oven. My educational aims were forgotten as soon as a friendly Frenchman named Georges handed me an all-butter croissant.
The smell of fresh-baked goods enveloped me.
After escaping from the intoxicating air, head cheesemaker Pete Kindel kindly gave me an informative tour of the farm's dairy facilities. Sixty-odd head of apparently happy dairy cows (with names like Flame, Harriet and Broccoli) graze on 200 acres of pastureland, producing the nutrient-rich raw milk that becomes both raw and pasteurized cheeses, yogurt and quark, a soft creamy cheese with a light, tangy flavor.
Hawthorne Valley Farm, he explained, is one very few New York State farms licensed to sell raw, as in unpasteurized, milk. According to Ag and Markets, raw milk can only be sold on the premises upon which it is produced. Enthusiasts make frequent pilgrimages to Hawthorne Valley throughout the year. The stipulations for its production and sale are so stringent that Kindel is on a first-name basis with his certification inspector, who drops by at least once a month.
From a distance, I got to see the sterile 300-gallon Swiss-style copper kettle - one of a handful in this country - where Kindel and company heat the milk that will become havarti, cheddar, gouda-style and Alpine cheeses. Downstairs, in a darkened den of dairy, wide wheels of yellow cheeses aged on rows of shelves, like library books.
The comprehensive experience ended with an abrupt economics lesson in the Hawthorne Valley farm store, where I learned it is possible to spend $70 on sauerkraut, bread, cheeses, yogurt and hearty soups in under ten minutes (and that I won't be able to keep my apartment if I continue to do so). Whether it's the biodynamic approach, the lack of additives or those happy cows, I know not - but Hawthorne Valley churns out some simple, pure foods that are treats to eat.
"The caring, initially, is what makes the difference. The intent in a person, who's making your food is critical to its final flavor," said Kindel.
I can't disagree. I can recommend the Hawthorne Valley Jalapeo Sauerkraut, Aged Alpine and Bianca cheese, Seven Grain Bread and Maple-Vanilla Yogurt - and that you plan your own trip before the leaves fall.++
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Food