Laying the foundation

Chickens on the Red Barn Farm wander under the windblown sky and tendrils of the willow tree. When Laurie Carlson steps out onto her back porch, the tide shifts in the ever-moving flock; the aimless meandering becomes purposeful as the birds turn toward her voice.

They come up onto the porch to greet her, with a low, throaty call. Carlson shoos them out of her planters holding the remnants of summer’s flowers. “That’s their begging sound,” she says.

Until last year, this was Carlson’s back yard. That’s when she attended a California conference on sustainable farming and organic growing and found herself inspired.

“This is the cusp of some sort of movement,” she remembers thinking. “You just felt it. I began to wonder, ‘What can I do to become a part of it?’ “

She came back determined to share her immersion into the world of organics by creating the magazine Field & Feast. Its pages explore the politics of food, the emerging trend of bringing local food to local folks and the belief that foods are more nutritious when they are raised without fertilizers, hormones and antibiotics. And because Carlson wanted to “walk the talk,” she added 300 laying and broiler chickens to her family’s small Cheney farm.

But inundating her life and her yard with a fast-laying flock of Rhode Island Reds and Leghorns was not a rushed decision. Carlson is a lifelong scholar of nutrition, agriculture and history and has a great appreciation for its lessons. She holds a bachelor’s degree in home economics and master’s degrees in education and history.

She’s an accomplished writer with a long list of books to her credit, including several kids’ titles. Her most recent book published was based on her dissertation for the history Ph.D. she earned at Washington State University. “William Spillman and the Birth of Agricultural Economics (University of Missouri Press, 2005) is a biography of the WSU pioneer and the founder of the university’s wheat breeding program.

According to Carlson’s Web site, “Spillman’s work in the early twentieth century laid the foundation for genetics, sustainable agriculture and the struggle to deal with overproduction of commodity crops.”

Her new magazine is built on that foundation.

Carlson wants to know where and how her food is grown and give others the information they need to do the same. As a farmer herself, she not only knows where her own food is from, but where the feed for those animals is produced. She and her husband use old wheat farming equipment to mix organic grains, flax and kelp for the chickens. Studying farming techniques from before the invention of antibiotics has given her ideas about how to ward off illness and disease naturally, Carlson says.

Earlier in their marriage her husband farmed wheat. But growing grain has little in common with what they do now.

Then, they would grow the crop, sell it and drop it off without ever knowing where it was destined. Now, she sells eggs, chickens and turkeys directly to the people who will eat them. There’s a list of names on her refrigerator of people who would like turkeys from her farm for Thanksgiving.

“Once I met the people who were eating the food that I grew, I was hooked,” she says.

Gathering eggs, along with raising chickens, pigs and a few steers on their small farm has connected Carlson to the same joys and frustrations other small farmers face – such as finding a market for the 90 dozen eggs your hens are laying each week. During the farmers’ market season she could sell many of them there. Now that the market has closed until spring, finding homes for the farm-fresh eggs is a little harder. She’s selling them at several small natural foods’ stores in Spokane and through Fresh Abundance, a local business that delivers organic food to area homes.

The local foods trend that is so strong in Oregon, California and even Western Washington has been slow to take hold in the Inland Northwest. Most of Carlson’s readers are in those areas, she says.

About a dozen writers from around the world contribute to Field & Feast. Articles range from commentary on world food politics to discussions of emerging sustainable farming techniques. There are also book and film reviews, along with stories about gardening and stretching.

Carlson also runs articles about the health benefits of foods, including some recipes. She would like to see more study of the nutrition in foods raised on farms like hers. Research by Donald Davis at the University of Texas has shown foods produced now are less nutritious than foods grown in the 1950s, Carlson says in an article she wrote for Field & Feast. Organic practices and eating locally can help reverse that, she believes.

Carlson’s next issue, the magazine’s third, is due out soon It includes articles on heritage turkey breeds and apples.

She hopes the magazine will give people information and thoughtful analysis of the changing world of food and its emerging trends, and help connect farmers with the people who would eat their food.

Here are some of Carlson’s favorite recipes for using eggs at her house. She said it feels luxurious to be able to use eggs with such abandon in custard and French-style ice creams. We’ve also included a Festive Scramble recipe from the first issue of Field & Feast.

Carlson’s next issue, the magazine’s third issue, will be finished soon and includes articles on heritage turkey breeds and apples.

Here are some of Carlson’s favorite recipes for using the eggs at her house and a recipe from the first issue of Field & Feast.

Red Barn Custard

2 3/4 cup whole organic milk

5 eggs, plus 2 egg yolks

1/2 cup sugar or 1/3 cup honey

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Nutmeg

Heat the milk in a saucepan until it just bubbles around the edges of the pan. Remove from heat. Whisk the eggs and yolks in a bowl, adding sugar (or honey) and whisking until frothy. Slowly pour the hot milk into the egg mixture, stirring continuously to keep from cooking the yolks with the hot milk. When all the milk is added, stir in the vanilla. Mix well and pour the mixture into either a 1-quart oven baking dish or two 1-pint baking dishes. Set the custard dish(es) in a larger baking pan and fill with water until it comes halfway up the sides of the custard dish(es). Sprinkle the surface of the custard with nutmeg. Bake at 325 degrees for one hour. Insert a knife blade into the center and if it comes out clean, the custard is baked. After it cools, store custard in the refrigerator. This is delicious served with a drizzle of unsulphured molasses and a dollop of whipped cream.

Yield: Unavailable

Approximate nutrition per serving: Unavailable

Festive Scramble

From the Spring 2005 edition of Field & Feast magazine

4 eggs

¼ cup diced onion

¼ cup diced bell pepper (use peppers in a variety of colors)

1 ounce grated cheddar cheese

Beat 4 eggs aside. Sauté diced onion and bell pepper. Use a mixture of red, yellow, orange and green bell peppers. Add eggs and scramble. When eggs are almost done, mix in 1 ounce of grated cheddar cheese.

Sprinkle eggs with more grated cheese and serve.

Yield: 2 servings

Approximate nutrition per serving: Unavailable

Red Barn Homemade Ice Cream

French-style ice creams use lots of eggs, to create creamy, rich frozen custard that’s delicious and nutritious. Some recipes call for 14 yolks per quart. You can add more to this recipe if you like. This makes about a quart, enough to make one batch in an ice cream machine.

2 cups whole organic milk

2 cups organic whipping cream

6 egg yolks

1 cup honey or maple syrup

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Scald milk and cream in a saucepan, just till bubbles form around the edge.

In a bowl, whip eggs and honey or syrup until frothy. Slowly pour the hot milk and cream mixture into the egg yolks, stirring continually. If you add too much too quickly, you’ll cook the eggs.

Pour it all back into the saucepan and cook over medium-low heat for about ten minutes (keep stirring), until it thickens a bit. (Don’t cook to 180 degrees or you’ll have scrambled eggs.) Remove from the heat and stir in vanilla.

Chill for at least four hours; overnight is best to develop the protein for a smoother ice cream. Cover with plastic wrap to keep a skin from forming on top. Churn and freeze in an ice cream machine.

Here are some of the stir-ins Carlson suggests: Toasted coconut, chopped walnuts, raisins, or blackberry jam.

Yield: 1 quart

Approximate nutrition per serving: Unavailable