What I Learned

So, we made it back from the PASA conference yesterday despite SNOWMAGEDDEON 2010.
I just have to say that even though State College and surrounding areas got almost 2 feet of snow, all the roads were completely clear all the way to Cranberry. Granted we were mostly on highways, but even the little roads through tiny farming communities on the way to I-80 were absolutely clear. Once we hit the "big city", it was like no efforts had been made whatsoever. That's all I'm gonna say about that. Except that despite the harsh weather and the fact that we were completely unable to get the truck anywhere near our street once we got home (we had to hike in with our bags, and then rebby took the truck over to Melwood and got dropped off by a friend)Rebby is getting on a plane to Atlanta in fifteen minutes. I on the other hand am stewing a chicken, making bread and pizza dough, making saurkraut, taking down the Christmas decorations, and writing to you.
I don't really know where to start. I think that the PASA conference was a game changer for me, and it isn't even all about the workshops or speeches. Just being around all those farmers who care about the earth and the future was inspiring in a way I can't really describe. Walking down the hallways past people selling seeds and tools, past Amish farmers and Mennonite women, past other urban squatters like us. I learned about a new Food Studies program at Chatham, and got a big bottle of liquid fish emulsion for free from a nice guy who got really excited about our future farm.
There were a lot of people there, and there were plenty of times when it seemed overwhelming. For the most part though, everyone was friendly and we met and talked with and learned about people doing similar and very different things with the land.
We ate amazing local foods, and got to bring home some lacto-fermented ginger carrots and daikon in a glass jar, and sprouted spelt pita chips with black bean hummus, and roasted tamari almonds and chocolate covered raisins, and perhaps the best cheese I have ever tasted (or at least it seemed like it at the time) from an Amish man who conveyed his love for his cows and dedication to making the world better wordlessly as he handed me a sample. I picked up an obscene number of seed catalogs (especially for someone who has already received two seed orders!) and we got a pile of informational booklets from the cooperative extension and others. We bought some books too---CheeseMaking and Chicken Keeping and Country Skills. I've got a lot of reading to do.
Our first day at the conference was an all day food preservation seminar, broken up into four parts. The first part was all about canning, and the woman who delivered the talk was so down to earth and excited about it that she really took away my last vestige of fear. We are gonna can the hell out of this garden next year, lemme tell ya! Next up was freezing and drying, with which we were largely familiar. Except this woman takes drying to a whole other level by making her own soup mixes and drying refried beans! Cool. She showed a very simple solar drying rack that rebby could build in an afternoon. She advocated the use of silpats, which thanks to Juli I now have two of, for drying herbs and fruit leathers and other small or liquidy items. Woo! I am excited.
The woman giving this part of the presentation as well as the next (on lacto-fermentaion) is a hard core Price-er, so some of what she was saying got slightly cult-y. I am generally pretty aligned with what they believe but I get a little creeped out by the way their eyes get when they are talking about bone broths and raw milk. Anyway, the next part of the talk after lunch was about lacto fermentation and we are already totally on board with that. I am a saurkraut master, though I haven't made any in a while (I'm changing that today!) I was pretty excited about her super easy instructions for making yogurt using raw milk and a thermos, though. I might try that today too. She shared with us some ferments she had done including a pineapple chutney and a ketchup which were interesting ideas. It got kind of awkward when she insisted that since it was a "hands on" workshop people had to come up and make saurkraut and salsa and chutney even though she had left behind some of the ingredients and most of the audience was clearly losing focus. Plus, it was wicked hot in that room. But we survived, and then came the session about curing meats. Justin Severino was supposed to give the talk but couldn't make it, so a really awesome young farmer named Brooks put it together and laid down some serious knowledge. He and his wife and son have a farm with a meat CSA, and they cure mostly pork but also some beef products. He made simple meat curing sound just as easy as the gravlax I made twice last year---and really it's the same thing. Meat, salt, spices, and time. I can't wait to give it a try!
The last session of the day was our old friend Don Kretschmann talking about root cellaring. He shared some really useful ideas and information, including the fact that most things (root vegetables, at least) do best with high moisture. I was convinced of the opposite! So basically we can put our root vegetables in the little room at the bottom of the storm cellar stairs and we should be fine. Crazy. We do still want to fix up the storage room at the front of the house under the porch at some point, though. It's got shelving in there already and (I think) a dirt floor which is apparently best for regulating humidity. He also suggested burying your roots in layers of dry leaves. Wow. It was all so exciting and applicable!
After all that learning we had an amazing local foods dinner and then we were pretty exhausted, so we went back to the hotel rather than staying for the band. A pretty sound sleep and then it was day two, featuring a keynote by Michael Reynolds. My Hero.