Willie Green's Organic Farm and Food Lust

Excerpted from The Northwest Vegetarian Cookbook (Timber Press) by Debra Daniels-Zeller

Willie Greens Organic Farm and Food Lust (word count: 739)

Food Lust is coming. The annual white tablecloth spring dinner and auction looks like another winner this season. This event is held at Willie Greens Organic Farm, a farm I profiled in The Northwest Vegetarian Cookbook (2010, Timber Press).

Recently I shared this excerpt from my book on another blog. It seems only fitting to also share this farm profile here.

Willie Green’s Organic Farm

At Willie Green’s Organic Farm, farmer-owner Jeff Miller didn’t start out with farming roots.Miller’s winding road to organic farming started in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where as a young boy he dreamed about becoming a chef, not a farmer. Miller said that his father “always had a well-trimmed lawn but had no interest in growing food,” so Jeff never thought about a farming career. But he was always cultivating something. “I grew vegetables in the basement when I was young,” he told me. “Wherever I lived, I had a garden.”

After high school, Miller attended the New York Culinary Institute of America and then returned to Pittsburgh as a chef. Eventually he moved to San Francisco and cooked for several four-star restaurants, including the famous Stars. While he was there, he was impressed by the quality and quantity of organic produce moving through the kitchen doors. In the early 1980s, one of Miller’s friends returned from a trip to Seattle and mentioned that there weren’t any farmers selling specialty greens to restaurants there.

Tired of the administrative aspects of a chef’s work, Miller daydreamed about having his own organic farm. As he formulated his plan, he spent time observing an urban farm in Berkeley that grew salad greens.

In the late 1980s, Miller cashed in a life insurance policy, packed some specialty lettuce seeds, hopped on his motorcycle, and headed north to Washington to become a farmer. He leased land near Woodinville and called his farm Willie Green’s Organic Farm—Willie for his grandfather and Green’s for the specialty greens he began growing. When his lettuce crop came up, he headed to Seattle and got eight different accounts right away. “I was a chef, so I knew how and when to talk to chefs,” he explained.

In 1996, Miller bought a 24-acre farm 35 miles northeast of Seattle. Outside Monroe, the farm is just across the Skykomish River in the Tualco Valley. Miller grew unique lettuce varieties and eventually added vegetables like Brussels sprouts, carrots, turnips, and sugar snap peas. Over the years, he bought and leased more farmland and now cultivates diverse row crops and a variety of berries, including golden raspberries and mulberries. In addition to selling to restaurants and other wholesale accounts, Willie Green’s sells produce at nine Seattle farmers’ markets and through their CSA program.

Nowadays, Miller oversees transplanting, growing, and harvesting as he fields phone calls for orders and discusses crop plans with his farm manager. At the farm, workers pluck, pull, and cut vegetables in the fields, then transport them to a greenhouse, where they’re washed and prepped for market. Produce is packed, stacked, and trucked to Seattle. When they don’t have to pack and load trucks for markets the next day, the workers weed, fertilize, and plant new seeds for crops. They build trellises for peas and beans, and transplant starts to the fields. Moving from restaurant to fields to restaurant brings the farm’s focus back to Miller’s other passion—cooking.

“You’ve got to love the farm lifestyle,” Miller said, his eyes brimming with culinary possibilities.

His enthusiasm is contagious, but being new to farming can be a challenge. One of Miller’s biggest risk factors has been the weather, like the black clouds that rolled in so quickly in 2006 that the crew had little time to react before marble-sized hail suddenly pummeled his fields for 15 minutes. The crop of peas, destined to be a bumper crop, was a mass of severed vines. Miller’s market tables were almost bare for weeks, but eventually they recovered, along with Miller’s chef-like confidence.

When I visited his farm before my book was published, Miller told me about his plans for a restaurant on the farm. “It will be first class, all the way,” he’d said.

However, due to unbelievably expensive building permits, land requirements and fees, the actual restaurant wasn’t a feasible possibility yet. Undaunted, Miller invested in a beautiful Raj tent and hosts the fabulous annual Food Lust dinner and silent auction and rents out his picturesque farm fields for weddings and gatherings.

This is first class in action—a simple farm dinner where word is spread about sustainable farms and local food.

Check out Willie Green's Organic farm produce at Seattle farmers' markets. They offer a great variety of produce and pantry staples.

Jeff Miller at Willie Green's Organic Farm in Monroe.

I hope you liked this sweet farm diversion from the usual food blog recipes. We'll be dishing up more recipes soon.

The Soup Project: Minestrone

I've been thinking about Minestrone soup for a long time. For me, the best thing about Minestrone is the pasta. But I have to say, the worst thing about Minestrone is soggy pasta the next day. Waterlogged pasta isn't anything I look forward to.

I stumbled over a secret for the pasta in Minestrone in one of my favorite cookbooks.

I'll share the secret, but first I must share a few photos and tidbits about Nash's new farm store in Sequim Washington.

Last Friday I went to Nash's Farm store grand opening and ribbon cutting ceremony.

Nash's Farm Store

I took the Kingston Ferry and from Kingston, it's about an hour drive, north towards Port Angeles.

I look forward to the reader boards at Nash's farm that change depending on the season. Saturday was kid's day at the farm store with a bunch of cool planned kids activities. Makes me wish I'd grown up near a farm like Nash's.

Nash's new store is just down the road from the old store. The building was once an old Tavern. It took a lot of work to get the smoke out of the walls and to turn the old building into a bright cheery store.

They hit a few snags along the way. Permits were higher than anticipated and the work cost more than they'd planned. So the farm crew solicited the community for donations to help make this store happen.

And the community came through.

The result is amazingly cool--just check out all the produce. Much of it comes from Nash's farm. Some produce, that Nash doesn't grow, comes some of the farms I profiled in my book, like Dennison Farms near Corvallis. Sometimes I see things from Oregon here and wonder if it came from Tom Dennison's farm. The Organically Grown Company delivers it. All the produce is organic.

I got to the farm store early, but it wasn't long before people began arriving. Must have been everybody in the community that came to see the ribbon cutting ceremony.

Music was provided by Kia's husband, Cort Armstrong.

This beautiful carrot cake was cut after the ribbon cutting, and tasted was good as it looks--sweet cream cheese frosting, and cake made with Nash's flour and carrots. It was the kind of cake I dream about. My Cooking Assistant would have been impressed.

Nash said a few words, thanked his farm crew and everybody who helped make the store possible.

This is Patty McManus, Nash's wife. She does the bookkeeping and marketing for the farm. The carrot ribbon--a priceless idea.

The picture behind Patty and Nash is a "mock up" of a mural that's going to be painted, I think on this wall. Everyone who donated for the store will get their name painted into this painting. You could buy your level--starting with helpful ant at $10, then butterfly, honey bee or lady bug. I wanted to be a butterfly. Kind of like the tiles at Pike Place Market.

Now the butterflies mean something.

Every wall inside the store is a different bright color. They have coolers for meat, dairy, eggs and nuts, and nice displays for the produce.

I love that they offer these overripe and damaged fruits and vegetables for less money. There was a basket filled with leeks that said "free," and everyone who came to the store opening got to take home a free leek. That's how leeks became the first ingredient for my Minestrone soup.

Five Cool Things About Nash's Farm Store

1.Offers great selection of farm grown organic fruits and vegetables.

2. Supports local crafts people and neighboring farms by selling their products.

3. Shows food movies like Food Inc. on a regular basis. (All I want to know is: is popcorn included?)

4. Has a great childrens' play area and tiny shopping carts for kids.

5. Offers bargain priced produce, marked down from regular prices. I love this as a way to save on my $100 a week food budget.

Creating Soup

When I got home from the event, I perused a few cookbooks to get some ideas for Minestrone soup. I checked out Barbara Kafka's Soup, A Way of Life from the library last week, so I scanned the index for Minestrone. Under the title Kafka wrote, "There are as many Minestrones, all somewhat different, as there are regions of Italy."

Just the kind of soup, I like. I had celery, carrots, onion as the main ingredients. Kafka's ingredients were vegetarian. I saw a few changes I wanted to make--dried tomatoes for canned and bread crumbs in place of Parmesan cheese.

I checked Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone and she listed parsley and thyme. Seemed like the linking ingredients for Minestrone are tomatoes, pasta and vegetables. I took out a note card and made a list of all the ingredients I wanted to include in the Minestrone soup.

The next day I went to the market.

This is Nash's produce from the market. After paying $25 for round trip ferry rides, I wondered how much the farm pays to bring their produce to the markets here. We don't usually think of those kinds of farm expenses when we purchase foods, even at the market. It may be within 100 miles but that ferry ride is expensive.

Carrots are essential in a soup where you plan to use water not stock. One of the basic building blocks of stock, I always include them along with celery and onions when I don't to use a stock. Since I'm looking for ways to add flavor without a stock, I soaked dried porcini mushrooms. Soak these mushrooms and you end up with a deep rich flavored water, without going to the trouble of making stock. To bring the soup flavor even deeper I added dried tomatoes. I used to think organic sundried tomatoes preserved in oil were the best, but at $9, I'm looking for other options to boost the stock's flavor. I'm not out to impress royalty, I just want to eat well on a budget.

This was a perfect opportunity to try out my dried tomatoes.

The big secret is to cook the pasta ahead of time. Maybe you already knew that, but I like the idea of adding the amount of pasta you want after the soup is cooked. The hot soup heats the cold pasta.

Here's my recipe:

Minestrone

(Serves 4 to 6)

1 cup small shell, alphabet or orzo pasta

Handful of dried porcini mushrooms

6 to 10 dried tomatoes, chopped (or cut with kitchen scissors)

1 bay leaf

4 cups boiling water

1 very large leek or two medium leeks, sliced (about 2 cups of sliced leeks)

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

4 cloves garlic, minced or pressed

1 jalapeno or habanero pepper, seeds removed, minced

1 to 2 tablespoons tomato paste

2 stalks celery, sliced

1 to 2 carrots, sliced

1 potato or 1/2 sweet potato, diced

1 to 1 1/2 cups cooked red beans

2 sprigs of thyme

Apple cider

Water

2 cups chopped arugula or spinach, chopped (optional)

Handful chopped parsley

Parmeasan cheese (optional)

1. Cook pasta, according to directions, until al dente. Remove from heat, cool with cold water. Drain and set aside.

2. Pour boiling water over mushrooms, tomatoes and bay leaf. Allow mushrooms and tomatoes to soften. Drain, reserve liquid, chop vegetables.

3. Heat a heavy soup pot over medium heat. Add leeks and olive oil. Reduce heat, stir and cook until leeks begin to get tender. Add garlic, jalapeno and tomato paste. Stir and cook for a few minutes.

4. Add liquid and bay leaf from porcini and tomatoes and celery, carrots, potato, beans, and thyme. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and add mushrooms and tomatoes. Simmer until potatoes are and carrots are tender--about 20 minutes.

5. Remove bay leaf and thyme. Adjust seasonings by adding salt, pepper, and apple cider. Add water to thin. Stir in chopped arugula or spinach. Add the amount of pasta you want to each serving and stir it in before serving. Garnish with Parmeasan cheese (if desired) and chopped parsley.

Learning to read with alphabet soup.

Nash's New Farm Store

Tomorrow I'm going to the opening of Nash's new farm store. For years, I visited this little store. I'll miss the retro 70's hippie look, but I can't wait to see what the new farm store will look like.

Last summer I contributed to the building of this store. I don't really have a lot of spare change to donate, but even just a small amount made me feel like I'm part of this food web that feeds the community, Seattle farmers' market customers, and supplies PCC Natural Markets with amazing local produce.

Since I'm going to this farm store grand opening, I thought I'd share a few photos of Nash's farm and produce from my files.

These photos were taken when I visited the farm in 2008. Kia Armstrong gave me a tour and told me all about the various parcels of land that add up to 400 acres. Nash's farm is also growing young farmers who will eventually take over the helm of Nash's Organic Produce.

At the market in the U-District, I always look for fresh whole wheat pastry flour. The flavor is amazing. Whenever I use it, I'm reminded of how stale whole wheat flour from bulk bins and bags in grocery stores tastes. Really, I can taste the stale flour in baked goods all around me now. The light nutty flavor of Nash's flour wins fans for my recipes who wonder what my secret is. I won't tell. If you buy some, it keeps best in the freezer

Nash's Organic Produce also sells triticale and field peas. My friend David loves these peas cooked with rice. I haven't found the right herbs and ingredients to pair with them yet. Maybe I'll get some good tips tomorrow.

The big clunky carrots from Nash's farm have become famous. At PCC Natural Markets on the "Walk and Talk" store tour, Goldie Caughlan used to call them carrot candy. Recently I asked Nash why these carrots taste like candy in the winter months. He said when the ground gets very cold the sugar in the carrots becomes more concentrated.

Last winter it seemed like no matter how many carrots I came home with, they disappeared right away. My Cooking Assistant loves them as much as I do.

I taught him the phrase "Nash's carrots" He's into learning new words now.

Nash's farm profile in my book deals with saving seed and saving land. This is what a carrot seed crop looks like. If I didn't know and I wasn't a gardener, I might mistake it for weeds. (Even though my roots are in small towns, the word city slicker comes to mind.)

A farmer needs additional acreage to grow seed crops because you have to let the plant stay in the ground long enough to produce seeds. The seeds are tightly bound in these dry flower pods. Getting them out and cleaning them up is a skill, and it's not something you usually think about as you grab a package of seeds to plant in your garden.

Nash's farm crew sells vegetables at a number of Seattle markets, and the Port Townsend, Port Angeles and Sequim markets. They also offer a CSA. When you sign up you get recipes and farm news. Sometimes I check their farm newsletter on their website for recipe ideas. Occasionally I'm surprised to see my own recipes there. But I shouldn't be because I got some of my best ideas at Nash's farm stand. Check out the "Carrot Hummus" recipe in my book.

Nash Huber won Land Steward of the Year Award in 2008. In 1999 a farm near his went up for sale, he contacted Joe Hardiman from PCC Natural Markets. After taking the idea (of buying the farm) to the Board of Directors, the co-op Board bought the farm and started PCC Farmland Fund, later changed to PCC Farmland Trust. Nash has long term leases on most of the farmland he tends now. That's how he's able to grow carrot seeds. The farm feeds the community. Farms not tract homes!

I can't take my Cooking Assistant tomorrow. It's not good manners to bring your canine friends to the farm, so as I piddle around getting ready, Finn pulls a long face even if Tom is home.

It's an act, and I have my suspicions about where he'll spend the day.

Dreaming of carrots, no doubt.

Food Connections in Boston

This cool diner was the first place I stopped to eat when I was in Boston last week for a family wedding in Putnam, Connecticut (about 1 1/2 hour from Boston).

My daughter and I flew in on the red-eye and enjoyed this diner mostly to ourselves due to our early arrival. The diner is quite famous and has been featured in a number of TV shows and even played a part in this Kevin Spacey movie about the MIT blackjack team.

As for my Cooking Assistant--he'd started giving me the stink-eye long before the suitcases were packed for this trip.

I knew he expected something big when I returned.

In Boston, we walked a lot and we also took a couple of subways. If you've never taken one, they smell greasy and old. You wouldn't want to eat your lunch while riding one.

We walked to the Copley Square farmers' market. Farm vendors surrounded a small patch of grass, where people picnicked.

I was so impressed with these heirloom tomatoes, I bought one to eat for lunch. The flavor was okay but it didn't seem as sweet as those from home, and it made me miss the vine-ripened tomatoes grown by my favorite Northwest farmers.

These pickles were tempting, but the jars were big and require refrigeration. Oh you lucky people in Boston to have this vendor so close.

We saw lots of peaches, nectarines, apples and pears--so many apples and pears, I wondered if their season is slightly ahead of the Northwest. Apples are just coming in here.

And check out the most beautiful fresh ginger. Pair it with peaches, or use it to enhance greens. I hadn't thought of freezing it, but I'll try it this year.

The produce selection was mostly like the Northwest, without the blue- or blackberries. It made me miss Washington blueberries, which are in short supply this year because spring lingered till July and spoiled the berry party.

I love walking along, checking out all the produce. I was lost in the beautiful selections.

And suddenly the most amazing voice suddenly came over the air. When I glanced to see the singer, it was this guy (Ivory Darnell Clark) with a boom box and mic, belting out 60s tunes and Motown songs with a voice that made everyone stop and listen. We stayed for a number of songs--My Girl, Unchain My Heart, Use Me.

I dropped bills into the bucket and then bought his CD, my first CD from a farmers' market.

Later, we took the subway to Faneuil Hall Marketplace, where watched lots of street artists. Acrobats, street dancers, even a magician. I love that in a down economy, people can still collect money in pillowcases to support what they do. Just about everybody we saw was really, really talented.

If you go, don't forget to take lots of $5 bills for the street artists.

Check out the ribs on this acrobat. Does he ever eat?

The wedding was at the bride's sister's home. My niece made this amazing cake with raspberries carefully places on the layers. After I devoured a slice, I overhead someone say it had 18 sticks of butter. Oh, but look how perfect it turned out and really, how often do you eat wedding cake?

I was sad we couldn't stay longer, but I did leave with farm fresh maple syrup, a jar of berry jam and a spicy red pepper relish that I wished I'd gotten more of because it goes well with just about everything on our table.

First thing I made was an open faced onion, Gorgonzola sandwich on grilled crusty artisan bread and this pepper relish on top.

While I was gone, Tom had picked up our CSA box of nectarines from Rama Farm on Saturday. I got busy dehydrating them on Tuesday but not before my assistant gave me the stink eye for being gone so long.

It's good to be back. Hope you enjoyed the soup recipe of the week.

No Regrets: Going Overboard on the Treasures of Summer

This Romanesco from Whispering Winds Farm in Stanwood was one of the many treasures I picked up this past weekend. Overall, it was a great produce weekend and I loved every minute of it, but I went overboard and totally abandoned my budget. I feel the pangs of guilt still eating away, but I got caught up in the heat of the moment.

This is what happened.

I'd made plans to return to Hillsdale Farmers' Market this past weekend. I wanted to stock up. Fill my freezer with berries in one trip. I wanted Chester blackberries and this was the only weekend I could go.

On Thursday, I got a request for more of my books on Whidbey Island and Whispering Winds Farm, so that's what I did the Friday before I drove to Portland.

I took a ferry to Whidbey Island, delivered books and then made a side trip to Langley to The Chocolate Flower Farm--a store devoted to gardening and chocolate colored plants. I discovered this unique store the last time I was in Langley.

I bought a package of chocolate mint tea. It smells exactly like Frango Mints. If you're going to Whidbey Island, you should definitely check out this shop.

These funky shops are so classic in Langley.

Next stop of the day was Whispering Winds Farm in Stanwood where the dogs barked their greetings. Char and Doug's pay-as-you-go farm stand is open now and you really can't beat the affordable prices of organic produce from this farm. I got new potatoes, regular and elephant garlic, and the most beautiful Romanesco broccoli.

The onions in my garden didn't get this big.

Char wanted to show me something very cool. What is it? Look close and think Thanksgiving. (No not turkey, stuffing, potatoes or gravy.)

It's celery.

"Celery is grown in the dark or it turns bitter," Char said. Char and Doug cut pieces of plastic pipe and put them over all the celery plants to keep the sun off of them.

Who knew this much was involved in growing celery? You know celery must have us trained because if we didn't do some work, this domesticated plant would be seriously bitter and stringy. If you ever get bitter celery from the market, ask the farmer if he covers his celery.

I brought a load of vegetables home, but by the time I got home, the kale had wilted. I didn't give up on it. Instead, I washed it, tore it into small pieces and rubbed olive oil on them. Then I put the kale on baking sheets, sprinkled them with sea salt, set the oven at 350F. and made kale chips.

You have to watch it carefully; there's a fine line between chip and burned kale.

But every sheet of kale I put in the oven came out perfect. My Cooking Assistant thinks this simple snack is amazing. Kale chips are so good, you could possibly eat too much. It's funny to watch Finn crunch the chips.

After I made the chips, I noticed Gino (Mair Farm cat) seemed off. I won't go into it the icy details, but he had an abscess that broke. It was possibly inflicted by Spooky, the bully cat next door.

I took Gino to the vet who drained the abscess and put a tube in it. Everybody was glad when Mair Farm cat came home.

I left for the Hillsdale Market before the crack of dawn.

It was a perfect summer day. I love this view when farmers are still setting out produce and putting up price signs.

A double line formed at Ayers Creek Farm so as not to block another vendor's stand.

What are all these people waiting for?

Chester blackberries. Not even blueberries get this kind of attention at the market. I decided to get more of these than the usual blueberries for my freezer this year and it seems everybody else had the same idea.

I got some Elliot blueberries, too. Sweet with a great blueberry flavor, they're almost half the price of organic blueberries at markets here. Washington berry farmers got slammed with a long damp wet spring this season. And there's a new fruit fly to contend with- spotted wing drosophilia.

It's an Asian variety of fly that attacks the fruit in the green stage and makes it turn mushy when ripe. The berries in my own yard have it. I'm sad that I didn't believe it would happen to us and I neglected to set out some apple cider vinegar traps early in the season.

These berries from the market were perfect.

That isn't all I got.

Peppers have barely come in at Seattle markets. Check out these red and orange peppers and eggplant from Gathering Together Farm.

And the heirloom tomatoes--what a deal of a price for these treasures. Why the lower price?

Less farmers growing them? A shorter growing season? A trip over the mountains? Is Seattle more cosmopolitan? Do markets here require more fees? Who knows?

Sun Gold Farm is a sustainable farm near Corvallis, Oregon. At $2 a pound many more folks can afford to come to the table.

I would have gone for the green beans, but we've got beans in our garden right now. And I don't really go in for canning. I got plenty of everything else--celery, carrots, eggplant, peppers, tomatoes, artichokes, melon, plums, figs, berries, greens, preserves, bagels and dog treats.

I loaded my trusty wagon up and it was the talk of the market. I could barely pull it to the car.

Back at home, my assistant found the carrots right away.

And he was enchanted by the plums and figs. They look like Brown Turkeys or Desert Kings. Figs are rare at markets in Washington.

Okay my berry fund is seriously overdrawn now. I'm back to the usual budget next week.

With all this fruit how could I be a loser? My sweet tooth is satisfied and my Cooking Assistant is so happy with my successful produce hunt. No judgments are passed when you return home with good food.

What food could entice you to drive three hours?