Alex is a dental student at Marquette, and he's also in the Air Force. Kelly came to the dental school for a sustainability fair and they got to talking. Alex is a gardener, so she gave him a flyer for the farm. He is now a worker share and goes to the farm on Saturdays.
How long have you been a member with Three Sisters CSA Community Farm? This is my second season – started last year What part of Southeastern WI do you live in? About five minutes from the Marquette dental school. What do you enjoy most about being a worker share? It's kind of like a meditation for me. I live in the city so I like to have a reason to get out of the city. Just being 100% in nature doing stuff. That and getting to know Kelly and Jeff is pretty fun. It also makes you more willing to try vegetables you might not otherwise try because you are like, “Oh, I weeded that!” What do you like about Kelly and Jeff? I just think they're funny. Jeff is like that shy guy, but when you know him a bit he is not really shy at all, he's quirky. They are fun to hang out with and it’s great to hear their stories. Like Jeff's bartending past and why Kelly decided to be a farmer. And Kelly doesn't go to the dentist and uses herbs. Also, my goal is to co-own a farm with someone, have a stake in it. So it's great to be able to learn from them. What kind of farm? I would really like to do something like in the movie “The Biggest Little Farm” but on a smaller scale. A lot of fruit trees, maybe a cow, but also a restaurant and wedding venue. And also some vegetables. I want to eat all year off of what I have. There's a group I hang out with, and one guy is a sustainable land-manager, so he would do the day to day. We would all live on the land together. In three words or phrases, how would you describe the experience of seasonal eating you have through your CSA share? Surprising, Delicious and Sad Sad? Well, it's surprising because you are always eating new foods and learning how to cook them. But it’s sad because it ends and then I'm like, “I guess I'm going to go eat crappy Woodman's potatoes now.” It's a really fun thing, but then once you're aware it's sad because you know what you're missing when you're not getting the vegetables all year. When other people ask you what it’s like to be a CSA member or why you do it, what do you usually say? It's my meditation. I don't like doing yoga but I do like weeding potatoes and onions for three hours. You see the benefit if you are a worker share – you see directly what your impact was. Like when we weed something and then three weeks later you see a big difference between what was weeded and what was not. We went to their home farm a couple times, where they grow all the kale and greens, and when you look back over a bed of stuff that you have weeded, it's so wild to see the before and after. The results are very tangible. Yes. I love that. What is your favorite CSA food item? Delicata squash. I think it's the best thing. It's so easy to cook and it's delicious and plus it's only for like a month. Other things we get to eat for four months. That makes it special. Is there a CSA food item that most confounds or stumps you when it comes to cooking or eating, or used to before you knew what to do with it? I got pac choi recently. I wouldn't say it was confusing but I don't know if I cooked it right. I made it kind of like kale. I don't really know what it is. I ate it, but I don't know what it is. There are certain items that I don't get because I don't know how to use them. Did you like it? The pac choi? I made, like a buffalo bowl with it, so it was mixed in with a lot of kale and potatoes so I don't really know. That's what's awesome too though - trying things I wouldn't eat unless it's in the CSA. What is your favorite thing about being a member of Three Sisters Community Farm? Probably supporting a local business. You know who's growing the food, you know where it's grown. It's worth giving the money. You know where it's going and it’s all very transparent. It's good to get that reality check too, especially being a worker share. “What does a farm look like? How do they grow all this stuff? What does a hoop house look like?” Then you find a big black spider and you remember why you like living in the city. What’s the most delicious meal you have had recently? I made a Middleastern bowl the other day with Mexican rice with pinto beans (I know, that part was not Middleastern) and then some falafel and hummus from a local deli. It had all these pickled vegetables - pickled onion, pickled radishes, pickled parsnips - and avocado, some scrambled eggs and tomatoes and crispy kale from the farm that I roasted until it was crunchy. Where did you get the pickled vegetables? From the Mediterranean Restaurant. The falafel, hummus and pickled veggies were from the Mediteranean restaurant and the veggies from the farm. What is the restaurant? Holy Land Deli in Franklin. They are catering our wedding. Its friendly towards people who are vegan/vegetarian. They serve everything family style and most is vegan instead of the meat dish. And the falafel is the bomb. What’s the strangest thing you have ever eaten? I once ate a big green grasshopper that was still alive. I felt it moving around when it went down my throat and it was uncomfortable. My uncle and his friend said they'd each give me $10 if I ate it. But the friend gave me a Canadian ten dollar bill. So it was kind of a trick. This is exactly the answer I was looking for. Thank you. What is your favorite place to have a meal? I really like this restaurant in Greenfield called Kyoto. It's a sushi place and they have the best-ever sushi deal on Sundays. That's probably my favorite. Do you have something you always order? They have a roll called the Triple Tree Maki Roll. You pay $25 and you can order whatever rolls you want, and you can keep ordering. But it's actually like a nice sushi place. Either $25 all you can eat or like three rolls and a salad for $10. I think it's the best sushi place in the Milwaukee Area. Uh-oh. It might start to get a lot more popular once this newsletter comes out! What is one thing that is bringing joy into your life these days? I would honestly say, thinking about the future at this point because I am seven months away from graduating and finishing school, and then my fiance and I are getting married two weeks after that. On the countdown to a bunch of good things happening. How long have you been in school? Typical route for dentistry is 4 years undergrad and 4 years dental school. I had six months off where I worked at a cheese factory and then I went into dental school. What is one thing that is giving you pause, or reason for concern? I honestly think – how crappy our food system is. The fact that you can go to the store and buy things you shouldn't be eating... And I know it's weird but, the Zombie thing. I think it's real and it's going to happen someday. I watch too much Walking Dead. Potatoes or tomatoes? I want to say tomato but then what about hashbrowns? But I think I'll choose tomato because I like pizza. I can’t give that up. I like how you went right for the desert island scenario there. Is there anything you would like to share about seasonal eating, local food, CSA membership or anything else related to these topics that you have never had the chance to say? I think that working on a CSA farm really helps with the idea of understanding seasonal eating. Apart from avocados. It helps me see seasonality with food. I don't buy tomatoes in the winter. In the winter months I pare down and eat more squash. In the summertime I eat all the stuff from the farm. It makes you see directly like, “Maybe I shouldn’t be eating this right now because I can't get it from the farm so it's probably not good.” Also it makes me be more vegetarian because I have so many vegetables. I can't eat meat during the season because I can't keep up with all the vegetables I need to eat to get through my share. Alex's Humus Bowl - Combine the following in a bowl and enjoy 1. Add 1 cup of cooked Mexican rice (rice with pinto beans and seasoning) to a bowl. 2. Top with roasted veggies (I like to go with 2 kale leaves, 1/2 green pepper, 1/2 small onion, and mushrooms - all diced and cooked at 450 for about 30 minutes). 3. Add 1/2 a medium tomato and 1/2 an avocado diced and lightly salted. 4. 2-3 eggs either fried or scrambled 5. A good scoop of your favorite hummus 6. Add additional toppings of your choice, such as pickles or pickled veggies, falafel, cheese, or meat if that's your fancy. I like to have a nice piece of buttered bread with my bowl. Hope you enjoy.
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How long have you been a member with Three Sisters CSA Community Farm? Since 2014. We rent a house together and we cook together, we are a big food family. That's how we got into it and we knew we wanted to do Three Sisters, but we were technically not on the boundary map when they first started. So we sent them a cheeky email and said “Hey we are two sisters and we want to get Three Sisters.” What part of Southeastern WI do you live in? We live in Tosa, on the Tosa/Milwaukee border. What three words or phrases would you use to describe the experience of seasonal eating you have through your CSA share? We were texting about this already today! We agreed that: It's personal. We love that we have met Kelly and we've seen Jeff's silhouette dropping off our food. It feels very personal to know who's touching your food. It's really invigorating for us because we're both plant-based and we have a litany of food sensitivities. We feel the CSA is very life-giving and we wouldn’t have access to it otherwise. And we love to cook. We feel like it's a privilege because we know that people don't have access to fresh food, and this is literally delivered to our doorstep. We think about climate change and we're worried about it, we want more people to be invested. So many of our friends just don't care where their food comes from. But we want to live a smaller, slower food life and it's hard to do that in this society. It's a lot of work, and Jeff and Kelly are so gracious. When other people ask you what it’s like to be a CSA member or why you do it, what do you usually say? E: There is someone who is touching our food and there's that connection to the farm. I love the weekly updates, I love hearing from other CSA members. You can just tell there is so much love that they put into the farm. You don't get that from the grocery store, today you don't even have to go into the grocery store. There's no connection anymore to where your food comes from. I think it used to be part of our American culture to make food and grow something in a garden. N: I think when people ask me and I tell them about it, they think it's really cool. So I think that hopefully people will do it more. But just be prepared to prep everything! We are so disappointed now when we eat out because it just doesn't taste as good. We love to travel, and I feel like the CSA is so hip. Three Sisters especially, if they were in Paris it would be the hottest thing. Kelly and Jeff just grow this amazing food. What is your favorite CSA food item? Our favorite vegetable is kohlrabi. We fight over it in our family. When we get the kohlrabi in the CSA box Liz cuts it in exactly in half. It's so satisfying and it's such a good snack. There's a story about Liz, one morning when she was little she went into our garden and pulled out a kohlrabi and brought it to my mom who was still asleep in bed, and said, “Can you cut this kohlrabi for me?” Really? Kohlrabi!? Yes! We know, we have read the other interviews. So we want to say to Jeff and Kelly - Please don’t get rid of the kohlrabi!! But we love everything. I love the really early lettuce. And kabocha squash. That was so amazing, it's the number one squash. We roast it and scoop it out and add a little coconut oil and coconut sugar and pop it back in the oven for a bit. Is there a CSA food item that most confounds or stumps you when it comes to cooking or eating, or used to before you knew what to do with it? We definitely call our parents hotline if we have a question about something. But I think the only thing that we were slightly confused about was the celeriac. But we did end up using it - my dad said to make stock with it. We love the broccoli but we are so freaked out by the worms! So sometimes we choose the broccoli but then we make our dad or our sister prepare it. You might hear screaming from this house when we are preparing food and we find bugs. Do you have a “box unpacking ritual” each week? If yes, please describe. N; Liz takes the produce out of the box and takes a picture for me, and she preps the greens while I'm at work. Then we have a conversation with my dad about how the produce looks and what we got. Wen we got the extra box of tomatoes our dad helped us cook them. I brought the 18 pounds to Sheboygan. I'm the sous chef – being in the food business he likes to delegate. How has your family shaped your relationship with food? Our grandparents owned a bakery, so that was a big part of our identity growing up. Both of our parents cook a lot, they bake a lot. Our dad was the head baker at the American Club in Sheboygan, and European bakery is his specialty. He is also a huge gardener. Our grandmother also had a garden, so we grew up eating a lot of fresh food. Any time we have a family meal there is a discussion about the menu, about what recipe would be used. We didn't grow up with a lot of money but our food life was phenomenal. There was such a focus on food and how you feel from eating. It's such a great foundation for life, just knowing that food is such an asset. And that it makes you feel so good. We started cooking really early, I think from the age of seven I knew how to make my own vinaigrette. Our dad is an honorary member of our CSA share. He was obsessed with it the year they shared the phase the moon was in on the planting date. We even ask our dad what we should get in the share some weeks based on what's in the garden. My dad always makes a menu for everyone's birthday, and it's not like one or two things - it's a whole list of things. That's how he shows his love. What is your favorite thing about being a member of Three Sisters Community Farm? I love getting it delivered every week. It's just so nice. It's slightly different every week and it's seasonally appropriate which is so nice. I love the connection back to Kelly and Jeff, just all the stories behind where it comes from. I love getting to know other varieties, there's always a new variety that comes every year so it's never the same. It's kind of exciting. I love that they will be like “we had extra so everyone's getting more” - but sometimes I think they are too generous. What we are getting is such a value. You look at the cost per share and you could never get that price at the grocery store. It's unbelievable what we are able to get for that value. What about being a CSA member is most important to you? We like Kelly and Jeff, and I like that it's still small and local. It's so personal, and there's such a direct connection to the farmer - that seems so rare these days. It's trendy to say things are farm grown but you don't really know. They are so transparent with what's happening, like this year when the CSA started a week late because of the rain. I love that it's organic but that's not the most important thing. We already brought up climate change - and they are doing their part with the farm. They are spreading their mission with the work. What’s the most delicious meal you have had recently? We were frantically trying to cook dinner before this call, and Liz pulled out one of her 1800 tomato sauces that she cooked down and we made a yummy veggie chill. We cook all the time so we just see what comes with the CSA and what's seasonal. And the purple carrots have been delicious! We used one to make a vinaigrette and it was so pretty. We just cook all the time. We're trying to introduce our friends to a more plant-based diet without forcing it. So we had a vegan party at our house and spent days making specialty vegan food. People were like, “I would love all this food but I just want you to cook it all.” It was so nice to come together around the food. It wasn’t about pushing anything, it was just about community. I love green tomatoes, so I made baked green tomato, they are like a friend green tomato with no gluten and no egg. Did you get those from your dad? We did. They are so lemony to me, they are so good. Every day our lunch is a salad, so we love when the CSA has so much lettuce. What’s the strangest thing you have ever eaten? Naomi: When I was in law school I clerked for a company and I went on a private jet to Amsterdam. We went to a restaurant and we were having a tasting menu. The waiter came out right away and said, “Does everybody eat everything?” I didn’t know about all of my food sensitivities back then, but I said, “I really don't eat a lot of meat.” And the waiter said, “For you we do fish.” So it proceeded to be like 20 courses of things like eel foam. We get to the dessert courses, and by that point I had been drinking a lot of wine. So we're on dessert course number three, and they bring out a little egg cup. The guy didn't speak a lot of english and I thought he said it was a liquor. So I took it like a shot. And then the guy next to me from the firm was like, “I can't believe you just drank that raw chicken egg from the chicken outside.” Liz – I had some raw tuna tartare. But I was in NY and with my aunt and uncle and just had to experience it. Wasn't my thing but it’s probably delicious to other people! We loved eating cold leftovers as kids. We loved eating leftover spaghetti in the morning watching cartoons. Leftover cold marinara was so good. We still love a savory cold left over. What is your favorite place to have a meal? We love Europe. But we wouldn't really care if we were eating on a card table in an abandoned building if the food is good. And our family, when we are around good food, we are just obsessed. Our family home in Sheboygan – we all love coming home and having meals there. There's the big beautiful garden and a beautiful maple tree. Just simple perfection. What is one thing that is bringing joy into your life these days? Apart from travel, we've been really into hiking especially at Devils' lake. Being outside has been so great this summer. Concerts, we have a record player in our dining room. We love to come home and put on a record and do our cooking – just small moments of joy. Last summer we both really got into open water swimming, just like childhood, just jumping into the lake. It doesn't cost any money but it makes you feel so refreshed. What is one thing that is giving you pause, or reason for concern? Climate change. It's an emergency and it doesn't seem to worry a lot of people. We are so concerned about what we can do to reduce our waste and our emissions. We know we're not even close to perfect, but we don't understand why other people don't do more. Also the cycle of food, and how some people have so much food and some have so little. We need more equality in food access and food supply. Liz has students who don't have enough to eat. Why do we have so much and some have so little? Chard or Kale? Which one and why? Kale 100%. We like kale the best raw with lime juice, a little olive oil, chili powder, teeny bit of balsamic and kosher sea salt and pepper, and maybe a little honey sometimes. And no massaging – we like the true texture. Is there anything you would like to share about seasonal eating, local food, CSA membership or anything else related to these topics that you have never had the chance to say? We're so excited for the fall share!! Hopefully there will be squash, but we're OK with whatever ends up happening. Simple Stieber Sister Curry
Although this in no *way* compares to the curry we’ve experienced from some lovely kitchens, this is a nice and simple “we’ve got lots of veg and I want something warm and comforting” curry. Wash, prep, and chop all of your veg (bonus points if they are CSA babies!) - we love carrots, sweet potato, potato, cauliflower, peas, jalapeño, bell pepper, any type of green, onion. The sky is the limit. Warm a bit of oil (we use safflower) in a pan (we use a Le Creuset cocotte). Add your onion and soften it, if using onion. Then, add the rest of your veg. Add some S&P and a decent amount of curry powder. Let those babies cook for 8-10 minutes or so (use your heart here, per our cooking teachers, Mama and Papa Stieber). Once they are somewhat cooked (potato and carrots won’t be tender at this point, don’t worry), add a can of full fat coconut milk. Now, add Thai red curry paste to your liking (we use over half a jar here but we love) and a bit more curry powder and some S&P. Let this all slowly simmer - don’t boil - but it won’t be ruined either. Once the carrots and potatoes are tender, serve over rice with whatever toppings you’ve got. We like green onions, chopped peanuts, and of course, a squeeze of fresh lime. Oh, and it’s great with tofu on the side too! above | the oak tree where the monarchs hang out.
As you may already know, good fortune came to Three Sisters Farm last April when a group of investors who were interested in creating habitat for Monarch Butterflies purchased a 29 acre parcel of land near our home farm with an understanding that Three Sisters will farm the land organically and a portion of the land will be set aside to be managed as a prairie to provide habitat for pollinators. Since monarch butterflies have taken an interest in our farm—we have returned the interest in them. So we leave the milkweed that comes up in the garden even when it grows in with the food crops. Still I was a little surprised when on the packing line a couple week ago I was putting romaine lettuce into CSA boxes and I spotted a small monarch caterpillar in the head of lettuce. Mind you, the poor thing had been in our walk-in cooler for a couple of days. So even though packing morning is busy I tore the leaf that the caterpillar was on off the head of romaine and put it in a small blue bucket that we use for harvesting cherry tomatoes. I set it aside where I thought no one would bother it so that I could put it on some milkweed when packing morning was all over. I thought I had set it out of the way—I left to get a cooler for some of the eggs and when I returned to find the caterpillar it was gone along with the leaf of lettuce. Jeff in an effort to clean up had tossed it somewhere. I was pretty upset and he could tell he was in the dog house—so with his tail between his legs he went back outside and found the piece of lettuce. To my surprise the little caterpillar was still on it. A week before I spent most of a work morning listening to Kenzie Kremer, a workershare, talk about her monarch caterpillars (she raises hundreds!) while we hand weeded radicchio in the garden. She said most of her friends were kind of tired of hearing about her caterpillars. She explained the process of transformation that the caterpillar undergoes, how long it takes and how she cares for them. She also told me that raising them in captivity greatly increases the odds that the caterpillar will become a butterfly. Armed with Kenzie’s knowledge, I decided to raise the caterpillar from the romaine lettuce, partially for myself to see the magical transformation and partially because I learned that I could increase the likelihood that the caterpillar would become a butterfly. It has since spun its chrysalis and now I am waiting to see if the transformation to butterfly happens. I want to tell you a few more of my experience with monarchs this year: 1 On my CSA day delivery route I have about 30 stops. There was one week where I couldn’t believe that at almost every stop I was greeted by a monarch butterfly. 2 Almost every week we sit in the shade of a beautiful large oak tree in the northwest corner of the new property with workershares to bunch your carrots. It is a marvel to watch the monarchs dance around us while we work. It seems that they are particularly attracted to this tree or this corner of the property. 3 Lately as I’ve been driving past this tree to the watermelon patch I am astounded that 4-6 monarch butterflies descend from the tree and, for lack of a better word, they dive bomb my vehicle as I drive slowly down the lane. Maybe I can get a video to share—it’s really quite something to be dive-bombed by a mob of butterflies! Well, I set out an hour ago to update you about all the wonderful changes and progress that we have made at the farm this year—instead I wrote about the butterflies. Which in a way I suppose just shows how indebted we are to them for everything that has happened in the last year. I guess this means I’ll have to write another newsletter next week to update you on the progress we have made with our community financed infrastructure improvement project. --Kelly Cooler temperatures this week means that summer is giving way to fall. Basil and cherry tomatoes are now done for the season. Cucumbers, zucchini and tomatoes look to have a few more weeks. |