Market Day in Milan

We arrived in Milan, Italy by train. After a short walk around the train station we found a bus that would take us to our Hotel. Eight stops I calculated and then it was time to walk about six blocks to the hotel. We headed down the street and immediately walked into a street market. On one side of the sidewalk were an endless row of vendors selling everything from underwear to cook pots. On the other side of the side walk was another endless row of food vendors. Stalls sold fruit and vegetables, fresh fish, meat, cheese and salami. Baskets of freshly picked wild mushrooms, fresh baked breads and other baked goods. The market went on for about six city blocks. Oh to have a kitchen in my backpack. What a feast we would have. The last time I cooked in a hotel room was 15 years ago in Paris when we ran out of money, but that is another story.

This was not the big city market, but a smaller regional market that sets up in a different part of the city every day. This is what a farmer's markets should be. Smaller regional markets where you can shop locally. What was significant here is that the market was full of people buying their groceries. The key to a successful market is that you have lots of customers buying food. Some markets in Canada have lots of people playing tourist, spending a couple of hours looking around, maybe buying a few berries or some baked goods, but after the market they are off to supermarket to buy their groceries. A farmers market is a business with many individual vendors. Without customers it would not be there. Case in point is the Hillhurst-Sunnyside Farmer's Market in Calgary. At one time it was the best market in Calgary and last year it was canceled. The customers stopped coming so the vendors found another location to sell and make their living.

Old Breed Apples

A few weeks ago I my wife Judy and I agreed that we had just eaten the best apple of our lives. My family comes from the northern German State Schleswig-Holstein. On my Aunt Ilse and Uncle Georg's farm they have a small orchard with a variety of fruit trees, all old breeds. We picked a few of the nice large red apples from one of their trees. This old variety called a Holsteiner Cox is native to the region and has been grown in the region for hundreds of years. The apples are quite large, firm, sweet and slightly tart. The taste made you stop in your tracks. They had a number of other varieties in their orchards many of which will be going off to have cider made. The apples from the area, mostly old breeds, are polled together and pressed into a delicious sweet cider. You can also have it fermented into an alcoholic cider as well.

A few days later we visited my other Uncle Heini. Heini inherited my grandfather's farm which has been in the family for about 900 years. The farm contained a small orchard which provided the family with most of their fruit. My grandfather planted a fruit tree when each of his seven children were born. For my mother he planted a tree that yielded large yellow grapefruit sized apples. These are a beautifully sweet and very juicy apple. When some of the land was redeveloped, my uncle saved all of the old varieties in a new orchard. Branches from all the trees were saved and grafted onto new trees. Some of the trees now have four different varieties of apples growing on them.

Another Uncle, Jörg, brought us some other old breed apples from the south eastern region of Saxony. These were the biggest apples we had ever seen, almost to big too hold in one hand. Again, another apple with a fabulous flavor. When East Germany reunified with West Germany, there were thousands of hectres of old breed apples. Hundreds of varieties were lost forever. Most of these were ripped up and replanted with the new world breeds of apples. The European Union created new standards for almost every product includng most produce. Apples if they are to be sold must fall into a very tight parameter for size color and weight. These standards were brought in to satisfy the lobbying efforts of the large multinational food companies. By standardizing apples into a few varieties the world market becomes easier to access. Apples are a commodity crop now and shipped worldwide. Apples like most other commodity crops are breed for yield and the ability to withstand shipping around the globe. Most of the old breeds can no longer be sold because they do not fit into these standards. An apple like the Holsteiner Cox are illegal to sell in Europe so most people will never taste one. Today when you shop in a European Supermarket the produce section looks very much like that of a North American Market. You will see a small section of varieties, Gala, Golden & Red Delicious, Fuji and a few other varieties. Depending on the time of year these apples are shipped from Europe, North America, South Africa, Chile, New Zealand or China.

Apples can be like a fine wine, these old breeds have their individual characteristics that differentiate them from other varieties. Depending on the regional growing conditions, this years weather, the apples will vary from year to year. Apples are like so much of food we eat today. Large multinational corporations are aiming for homogenized food. Many people will never have the opportunity to eat an old breed apple. So perhaps they will not know what they are missing. What a shame.

Land of Windmills, Germany

I was brought up to believe that Holland was the land of windmills. This has now changed at least in my mind. One thing that struck me as we were flying across Germany is the number of windmills generating electricity across the country. It seemed that on every small hill there were a few of the white mills churning out electricity. When we think of wind farms here in Alberta, we think of 50 or a hundred wind mills in a giant wind farm in southern Alberta. In Germany it is common to see little groups of 2 or 3 to a dozen wind mills clustered on hill tops. In the North Sea and the Baltic there are larger wind farms taking advantage of the steady ocean breezes.

Why is it that Germany has so many wind mills? When you consider the population of Germany, about 80 million in an area half the size of Alberta, you begin to see that as far as pollution and climate change they were up against the wall and needed to make changes to how they lived. Germany brought in legislation to encourage renewable, clean energy sources. As soon as you produce a watt of clean energy, German law requires that you are paid a price that is higher than that of conventional, polluting energy. An interesting note is that the Green Party first elected members to the German parliament about 20 years ago. It was pressure from them that help bring many of the most progressive environmental laws in Germany today.
Germany is dedicated to working towards a first goal of 25% clean energy and within a few years they will achieve this. One way this has been possible is through net metering, which allows small producers to sell clean energy back to the grid. Also many of the wind mills are privately owned by individuals or a small group of investors. In Canada we are still working on the larger industrial model for wind farms with these being build and run by larger corporations.

We have alot to learn about clean energy production in Alberta. Germany has become the world leader in clean energy and when the time comes they will be profiting from us buying their technology. Back in the 1990's a Danish firm wanted to set up a factory and research facility to build wind mills in southern Alberta. Ralph Klein sent them packing, probably to protect the interests of his buddies in the fossil fuel industry. Alberta could have been the world leader in the wind industry, but like so many other progressive opportunities, we couldn't see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Back From Terra Madre

We're home. After two days of traveling with three planes, four trains and seven buses we have surmounted the travelers obstacle of public transport and found our way from a converted monastery in the Italian countryside to a semi remote ranch in the Alberta foothills. After a month in Europe we are happy to be in our own beds again. Europe is a wonderful place to visit, but give me a home where the buffalo roam any day.

The main objective of our journey was the Slow Food Terra Madre conference in Turin, Italy. This is our second visit to this international food conference. Slow Food International invited over 7000 delegates from 154 countries to attend this biannual event. Almost 5000 small scale farmers, 1000 cooks and host of academics and government officials were brought together to examine the issues facing global food production. Terra Madre is the antithesis of global industrial agriculture. Farmers are selected to attend this event for their dedication to preserving rare breeds, plant varieties an practicing sustainable agriculture. The cooks in attendance are chosen for their dedication to using the produce of the local farmers practicing this more sustainable agricultural methods. Industrial agriculture is unsustainable in this era of climate change, peak oil and a ballooning world population. Slow Food seeks to preserve the agricultural methods, animal breeds and seeds that have proven themselves to be sustainable over the past 10,000 years of agriculture. Today we are eating a considerable amount of oil with every bite of food we eat. It is estimated that industrial agriculture contributes up to 1/3rd of all greenhouse gases in the world through its excessive usage of petroleum and petroleum products to produce and ship agricultural worldwide. A farm is a solar panel and should produce more calories of food than calories of energy it uses. Currently our industrial agriculture systems use 10 or 20 times as much energy in the form of fossil fuels to produce and ship food to global markets. Terra Madre is about local food and food security for all the people of the world. Food that is Good, Clean and Fair.

It was interesting that the global financial crisis was occurring just as the conference was being held. The global food crisis and peak oil were to be some of the main topics discussed at Terra Madre. In the background while banks were collapsing, countries were declaring bankruptcy, the discussion was about getting back to a real economy and not an economy based on speculation. We are in an era where a container ship of rice crosses and ocean and the cargo changes hand, on paper at least, three times before it reaches port. It's precious cargo upon arrival is now too expensive for it's intended customers. We are witnessing an era where the United Nations World Food Program has been seeking $10 billion in aid to help feed the 900 million poorest people in the world and has been unable to get that money after several years of efforts. While in the span of a few short weeks more than $2 trillion is found to help the richest people in the world. Terra Madre is about justice for all and the basis human right for everyone in the world for food security.

Terra Madre was a life changing event. It represents a blue print for the future of food and agriculture. Sustainable agricultural methods can produce more food, cause less environmental damage and lead to food security worldwide. As I find more time and can distill the lessons of Terra Madre I will write more on specific issues.

Getting Ready for Terra Madre

In a few days I will be 30,000 feet over the Atlantic. We are in a mad rush to get all of the preparations made for our for our visit to Terra Madre 2008 in Turin, Italy. Judy and I are fortunate to have been invited to participate in the event for a second time. Slow Food Calgary nominated us and Slow Food International invited us to attend. In 2006 we attended for the first time an this event made us look differently on what we do, which is bison ranching and how we do it. One of our main focuses in our business is controlling the process from conception to consumer. We look at ourselves as food producers first and bison ranchers second. Since we sell directly to the consumer every week at the farmers market we get feedback with almost every sale. We have found that by controlling almost every aspect of the production process we can produce some of the best bison meat anywhere. Attending Terra Madre again will hopefully strengthen how we raise our bison, care for our land and service our customers. We are trying to always improve ourselves and our business. Our goal is to conduct our business in an ethical, environmental freindly and socially concious manner.

Meanwhile back at the ranch we are trying to get all of the work done before we leave the ranch to our housesitters. Mostly they will be caring for Dixie our dog and our cats. But the bison, horses and cattle will need checking on. Terra Madre 2006 showed us that October is a great month for our annual vacation. The weather is still quite good, there is grass in the pastures for the livestock, the water is still running and we are tired after a long busy summer of farmers markets and all of the repairs an maintence that a farm requires. In a few more days we will have everything winterized, we will complete our last meat deliveries and we will be on our way.

Our travel plans have us flying to the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein where my family still farms near the city of Lübeck. My mother's family the Steens first settled here in the 1100's and most of my relatives still live in this part of Germany. I will be good to get back to land I know so well and am connected to. After almost two weeks here we plan to travel to Italy with some time in Bergamo, Milan and then into the Val d'Aosta in the Alps for some hiking in Gran Paridiso National Park. Then a few days on the Ligurian Coast in Portofino and Cinque Terra. Finally we will finsih with the Terra Madre in Turin.

I will try posting when I find time and computer access to update my travels and adventures during this trip.

Powered by the Wind

Come visit Buffalo Horn Ranch and you won't see a windmill.  We use  electricity for our household, ranching and meat marketing operations.  We need to pump water, keep it from freezing so the bison can drink it in the winter and at any time we need 3 to 7 deep freezers running to store the bison meat we sell.  It has always been our goal to keep our environmental footprint to a minimum and we are always looking for ways to reduce our energy consumption. 

We have looked at installing windmills and solar panels to generate electricity on the ranch.  Currently the cost to do this on a small scale is too high, but may become more feasible in the future.  We lobbied our energy supplier a few years ago to allow us to buy wind credits through the Pembina Institute.  Instead they came up with another plan.  Our electricity is provided by the Central Alberta Rural Electricification Association, CAREA.  Last year they introduced a plan by which there 8000 member rural households could buy wind power credits to supply all or part of their electrical needs by wind power.  It costs us an additional $15 a month to supply all of our needs 100% by wind energy.  At this point wind power is still more expensive than coal fired power, so it costs more if you choose this type of energy.  We felt that it was a worthwhile expenditure to switch to clean energy this way and not invest the thousands of dollars in our own power generation system. 

After the program had been running for a year we contacted CAREA to inquire about the number of households who had decided to switch fully or in part to wind power.  We were shocked to find out that only about 50 of the 8000 customers had chosen this option.  It is unfortunate that so few people are really concerned about the environment.  They are simply thinking about the here and now, tomorrow is far off and they would rather invest in something they can enjoy today as opposed to investing in their future and that of their children and grandchildren.  Our business is ranching as any change in climate could drasticly change our ability to continue raising bison.  We have already experienced three years a of drought in 2001 to 2003.  This even nearly cost us our ranch and herd.  I am not sure if we could survive another even like this again.  So I feel that it is our responsibility to reduce our carbon footprint and do what we can to prevent climate change.     

Purple Carrots, Yellow Beets and Blue Potatoes

We often have preconceived notions of what are food should look like.  The term carrot top refers to someone with red hair and beet red is that dark purple red.  Mashed potatoes are a creamy white, but never blue.  This year in my garden I have been experimenting with heritage vegetables.  I have a general interest in old varieties and for some reason I was inspired to try some of the old varieties that are being brought back by the seed sellers.  This year I planted purple carrots, these are the original carrot before Dutch plant breeders began to play with them in the 1700's.  The royal family of the Netherlands is called the House of Orange and to please them Dutch gardeners breed the purple color out of the carrot and created an all orange carrot, which to this day is still the standard.  The purple carrot is orange inside and is beautiful when sliced into a salad.  Continuing on the purple theme, we have been growing a purple bean for the past two years.  It is really a green bean and looses its purple color when cooked.  It to is beautiful in a salad, but the deciding factor is that the plants yield more beans than other varieties.  Beets for me were always a purple red pickle you served with a meal.  I never thought to eat otherwise until I met my wife who is of Ukrainian heritage and began to eat borsch.  This winter I had dinner at the Route 40 Soup Company in Turner Valley.  Chef Mark served up a terrific yellow beet borsch and off I went in search of yellow beet seed, actually called a golden beet.  I now have a new favorite vegetable, boiled yellow beets.  I start by boiling the roots for about 20 minutes, I then add the stalks for about 5 more minutes and finish with the leaves for another 3 or 4 minutes.  I serve this with a little salt and butter with a splash of vinegar.  This is a great vegetable to grow, just like the traditional red beet.  You can eat the root and the leaves and not just as a pickle.  Last night I also served for the first time Russian Blue Potatoes, I dug the first hill from my garden and boiled a few of these up.  The potato is you guessed it purple on the outside and a rich blue on the inside.  It had wonderful flavor that will be even better as the potato matures. In Peru where the potato originates there are hundreds of different varieties in a rainbow of colors.  It is unfortunate that we had to choose the bland colored varieties as our main ones.  There always seems to be something bland colored on our plate like potatoes, rice or pasta needing to be livened up with some more colorful food.   I am still waiting for my tomatoes to ripen as they are all still green.  My garden should yield yellow, brown and purple varieties later this fall.  Am I going to switch fully over to strange colored vegetables?  Probably not, but they make an interesting addition to my garden which keeps it fun.  They will also be great for when I have company for dinner.  You eat first with your eyes and this will add to the dinner conversation.  It is important that we as gardeners and consumers not forget the huge variety of heritage vegetables available to us.  By growing and eating these we are continuing a 10,000 year tradition of multiple varieties in agriculture.