Do you have a functioning fridge to get rid of? @BBBSYPG seeks a donation, no delivery required, @CaribeBistro is set to close on Monday to remodel their kitchen, @StribTaste points to CSA fairs as the optimal first step for newbies, @ArtisanBreadIn5 discusses the variable effects of stone-milled (coarser-ground) flour versus commercial bread flour, and @The_Wedge commends donations thus far for MN Food Share (and urges you to keep ‘em coming).
Alli Wade / Heavy Table
During the three hour drive from the concrete and buzz of city life to the romantic farming community of Caledonia, one can’t help but welcome the unexpected change in landscape. You’re no longer surrounded by a flat plains, but rather the rolling hills of bluff country amongst the self-proclaimed “mountains of Minnesota.” It’s easy to understand what drew the French-born Christian Gasset and his wife Liz to this breathtaking pocket of land. The views and ambiance are not unlike where he grew up in France.
Alli Wade / Heavy Table
The Gassets are the owners and operators in charge of Au Bon Canard, a Minnesota duck farm supplying locals with breasts, wings, and all other parts duck. Perhaps most notable, however, is their foie gras (pronounced fwah-grah). According to French rural code, foie gras is the liver of duck or goose, fattened by gavage — a force-feeding technique that has been targeted by animal rights activists and defended by Michael Pollan, among others. The mouthwatering delicacy was historically considered an elite treat in France until its popularity and demand migrated across the Atlantic, where it’s now a regular item on American menus. Some examples of its presence in local restaurants are the Foie Gras Meatballs at 112 Eatery and seasonal dishes at La Belle Vie and Heartland. (La Belle Vie is currently offering a Seared Foie Gras with Buttercup Squash and Pistachio, while foie gras appeared on Heartland’s daily-changing menu last week.)
Au Bon Canard is one of three foie gras producers in the country. Compared to the competition, they operate on a highly artisanal scale, delivering roughly 2,000 ducks per year – Sonoma Foie Gras in California and Hudson Valley Foie Gras in New York produce around 10,000 per week. Also unlike larger producers, Christian and Liz operate as a two-person team, only bringing in outside assistance during the slaughter. An additional bonus for Minnesota residents – sales are limited to Minnesotan restaurants and distributors. Around 90 to 95 percent of their product stays in state and they utilize a local distributor, Great Ciao, based in Minneapolis.
As of late, it seems we’ve all jumped on the “Where does my food come from?” bandwagon. This consumer curiosity is a comfortable match with the absolute open-door policy shared by the Gassets. During a recent tour of the farm, Christian walked through every step of a duck’s life at Au Bon Canard, from their initial arrival to the packaging room.
Alli Wade / Heavy Table
“Hey guys,” he gently murmurs, knocking on the door of the first stop on the tour, the small barn that is the duckling home. Ducks arrive to the farm as one-day-olds and are quickly shuttled in here. The breed, Moulard, is a cross between Muscovy and Peking. (The eggs come from France, but the ducks are born in California.) Gasset clucks his tongue as he swings the barn door open, careful not to startle them or disturb their emotional state. One of the beliefs behind a quality foie gras product is that the ducks endure the least amount of stress possible. “Stress is the number one factor behind taste,” says Gasset in a thick French accent. “That’s why I like to raise them myself, so they know me. When I do the feeding, they know I’m not going to hurt them.”
Continue reading The Ducks of Au Bon Canard in Caledonia »
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by Katie Cannon on December 7, 2009
Katie Cannon / Heavy Table
After spending three and a half years in Parma, Italy, Herb and Kathy Eckhouse returned to Iowa with dreams of making prosciutto. These dreams led them on a cured meat journey that started with Herb studying the art of prosciutto making for five years and experimenting by making it in their home. In 2005 their dream expanded and they moved their newly formed company, La Quercia (pronounced La Kwair-cha), to its current production facility in Norwalk, Iowa. Though it was a a risky endeavor to undertake, their dreams began to pay off when La Quercia Prosciutto Americano caught the attention of food critics soon after their first orders shipped; praises have been sung ever since.
Intrigued to understand the magic behind what Jeffrey Steingarten called the “best prosciutto you can find in this country, imported or domestic,” the Heavy Table took a trip down to the facility to witness what Herb Eckhouse has called “assisting in a miracle.”
Katie Cannon / Heavy Table
La Quercia’s production facility is designed to mimic the seasons, respective to the origin of drying meat through the winter as a preservation method. Each Friday, a shipment of pork arrives from Iowa suppliers: Becker Lane Organic Farm, Organic Valley, Niman Ranch, Heritage Acres, and Eden Farms. The morning is dedicated to salting the legs — the most important step in the process, according to the Eckhouses.
Katie Cannon / Heavy Table
With Italian opera blasting from the stereo — we’re told that the hams like Italian opera — the team of nine workers, including the Eckhouses, methodically works through pallet after pallet of hams. Each leg is trimmed, salted, and quality-checked by Herb before being placed on a movable cart.
Katie Cannon / Heavy Table
Once carts are full, they are moved to the first of many rooms that parallel the conditions of the seasons. Continue reading Prosciutto Making at La Quercia in Norwalk, IA »
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Katie Cannon / Heavy Table
This piece began as a classic farm-to-market story: It was mid-August, the Cities were gearing up for the State Fair, and Minnesota Cooks pitched us the opportunity to speak with one of the producers supplying their upcoming event. We chose Natura Farms for two reasons, one because they had partnered with Spoonriver – a restaurant whose veggies have long inspired our appetites – and two because we were fascinated by something we found on the farm’s website: “Eco-farmers are the genuine health workers of the world because ‘health comes from the farm, not the pharmacy!’”
The story progressed; we interviewed the affable farm manager, Paul Otten, visited Natura and photographed fruits and vegetables. And then, in the course of our research, we discovered that Christ’s Household of Faith (CHOF), a church and community in Saint Paul, owns the farm. In its more than 30-year existence, CHOF has had its share of controversy and has not always fared well in the media. The issue became this: Can we write about Natura and Paul Otten without addressing past allegations, some of which are fairly serious?
In the end, we determined that today, at least, the farm and CHOF intersect at food and health. This is, in short, a story about a farmer, his idiosyncratic growing style, and his philosophical approach to diet.
On an early Saturday morning in late August, the air at Natura Farms is warm and quietly buzzing with bees. The light has that golden quality that comes with fall and in it the white farmhouse and adjacent barn, lined with yellow dwarf sunflowers, look positively iconic.
Natura, located in Marine on St. Croix, is actually a single farm and, at just 25 acres of agricultural area, a deceptively small one. Looking out across the land, it seems possible to sum it up in a sweeping glance: fields, green houses, orchard, and vineyard. Yet that space belies an unusual diversity of fruits and vegetables, from the everyday to the somewhat treasured — as in a collection of some thirty gooseberry and currant varieties.
Katie Cannon / Heavy Table
It’s a u-pick farm, but even though the day is gorgeous, there are only a handful of takers – could be the time of day, the time of season, or the fact that outside of its website, the farm doesn’t advertise. Natura is less a commercial venture than it is a source of organic produce and fruit for CHOF in St. Paul.
It is hard to get a bead on CHOF: It has been called a church, a commune, and a cult. Since about 1970, its members have followed the religious leadership of Donald Alsbury, a one-time pastor with the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod, but the church is non-denominational Christian and there isn’t a formal hierarchy.
Originally, members gave all their worldly possessions to CHOF when they joined and were fully supported by the church. Today, some members moonlight for spending money, but the spirit of communal living prospers. The church still provides jobs, a small stipend, basic health care, a K-12 education, access to vehicles, and a place to live. CHOF owns several homes around Ramsey Hill and some of its members live in the church’s headquarters at old St. Joseph’s Academy, which also houses the school. Jobs are provided within the organization, at CHOF-owned businesses – among them, North Star Kitchens, an award-winning kitchen and bathroom cabinetry company – or at the school, which also has an excellent reputation.
Katie Cannon / Heavy Table
Quiet and inwardly focused, CHOF makes the news rarely, typically when the school’s basketball teams win — or when there’s controversy. Over the years, the church has had its share of public debate, including a more than 18-year court battle, which culminated in 2008 when the Minnesota State Court of Appeals ordered CHOF to pay the $235,000 in over-due child support owed by one of its members and the church failed to bounce it into the federal courts. In the early ’90s, former members alleged physical abuse against women and children; reportedly, formal charges were never made, but Alsbury’s public and unqualified support of corporal punishment still haunts the church.
Continue reading Paul Otten of Natura Farms »
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by James Norton on October 27, 2009
Becca Dilley / Heavy Table
Earlier this month, Heavy Table photographer Becca Dilley took a day to visit Wisconsin cranberry country and watched the harvest come in. Wetherby Cranberry Company is one of most publicly accessible cranberry marshes in the state of Wisconsin, which in turn provides 55 percent of the world’s supply of the fruit.
A ramp (above) is set up for the purpose of giving a modified tractor access to the marsh.
Becca Dilley / Heavy Table
The harvester then enters the shallow water.
Becca Dilley / Heavy Table
Once in the marsh, the harvester agitates the cranberry plants, knocking the berries loose. In a good year, each acre of Wetherby marsh produces about 200 100-pound barrels of berries (about 20,000 pounds).
Becca Dilley / Heavy Table
The berries float to the surface, where they are corralled, pumped up, and trucked to a gravity sorter that brings them into the processing plant. Here, they’re sized, further sorted, and packaged for retail and direct sales.
For more on Wisconsin cranberries, check out our cranberry blossom tour and recipes.
Katie Cannon / Heavy Table
Each summer Isaac Spicer and his wife Huvvah invite guests for dinner at their home, an idyllic spot in the Wisconsin countryside near Spring Green that they call Milkweed. But this isn’t just an invite or two; this past summer they sent around 150 postcards with a simple invitation to: “Please join us for dinner at Milkweed.”
Whether by invitation or referral, diners of all types may indulge in this intriguing opportunity by calling Milkweed. No matter food knowledge or dining style preference, Milkweed — a six-course dining experience in a casual, yet elegant environment – guarantees culinary delight.
After driving through miles of winding country roads, guests arriving at the Milkweed get the first peek at what’s in store for this “unique, outdoor dining experience” with one glimpse at the gardens. Fruit trees, squash, tomatoes, and berries skim just the surface of the bounty grown at the Milkweed farm — bounty that is sure to take part in the evening’s meal.
Katie Cannon / Heavy Table
Soup Course: Sweet potato bisque with shallot. Candied sweet potatoes, toasted pumpkin seeds, and pumpkin seed oil.
Six years ago Spicer moved back home to his parents’ farm with visions of renovating a small structure on the property into a home for himself. He had trained for two years in the culinary arts at Waukesha Tech in Wisconsin and had gained experience cooking in kitchens like The American Club in Kohler, WI, the Beard Award-winning L’Etoile Restaurant in Madison, and even a short stage at the renowned Frontera Grill in Chicago. But he was ready for a kitchen of his own.
“The creation of Milkweed was more just a creation of my home. And it kept going and now we have this,” says Spicer, chef and mastermind behind Milkweed. “I always had dinner nights and entertaining in mind. It was definitely in the back of my mind, that thought of ‘if it’s great enough’ to charge them.” The vision took off from there; Milkweed has now served guests for three summers.
“There’s a lot of things I’m really, really bad at, but envisioning things like far into the future — what it’s going to look like — it’s my second gift next to cooking.” It is this gift that perfected the details that define Milkweed.
“I was always kind of seeing these things moving around me; I knew they would fall in place and have a certain look to them.” One example is the metal sculptures that Spicer makes, an integral part of the Milkweed experience.
“We grew up respecting architects like Frank Lloyd Wright and there is a zero-impact aspect to their architecture. All those sculptures were piles of farm junk. and I was like, I’m not going to pay to get rid of these, I’m going to make them into something. Me and my little sister built the first sculpture out there just trying to get rid of some metal. We had a threading kit so we came up with the sculpture.”
Additional sculptures are found throughout the property, including a functioning faucet near the outhouse. Although the kitchen is outfitted with professional kitchen equipment, including an espresso machine, the outhouse is a quiet reminder that you aren’t dining in a trendy, urban locale — you are, in fact, in the country.
Katie Cannon / Heavy Table
Salad Course: Fall spinach, Black River blue cheese, Asian pear, apple, bacon and radish, cider vinaigrette, housemade bread, and sun-dried tomato and morel spread
The sweet pears and salty bacon combine with earthy spinach and creamy blue cheese in this bounty of fall salad. The morels from the spread came from a fifty-five pound haul Spicer and his daughter discovered while morel hunting on the property.
An evening at Milkweed entails 16 guests dining by candlelight under the large white tent in the backyard. The tent was one of the first investments made specifically with Milkweed’s growth in mind. When the weather fails to cooperate, like the night we visited, some dining can be accommodated in the house at tables set in their living room and in the kitchen.
“It’s always a little bit of a balance because we do live in the space. This is our biggest hiccup right now — the size of our growth compared to what we can put into our physical space.” Plans to expand Milkweed include a transformation of the shed in the backyard into a cottage and an additional building on the property that will specifically house the kitchen. Until then, Milkweed is not marketed for growth. They send invitations each year to prior guests and accept referrals, but beyond this, no further marketing is done.
Currently, the majority of the guests who dine at Milkweed are from Chicago and other parts of Illinois, but they have had guests travel from other states specifically for dinner at Milkweed. Spicer describes diners last summer from Indiana who “weren’t here for House on the Rock or Taliesin, but here only for this.” Continue reading Milkweed in Wisconsin »
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