Malcolm McDowell Woods

Winter bites, but you can still find local produce

By - Jan 1st, 2010 10:21 am

 

Locally produced Simple Soyman tofu served with Roots homemade ramen.

Locally produced Simple Soyman tofu served with Roots homemade ramen.

Story and photos by Mali Anderson

Farmer’s market stalls are in storage, garden parcels are covered with snow and orchards are closed until warmer days. How do lovers of local food manage?

For advice and inspiration we turned to local bakers and chefs that have demonstrated a commitment to seasonal eating. David Boucher, co-owner of Amaranth Bakery; Jan Kelly, Chef and Owner of Meritage; and Paul Zerkel, Executive Chef of Roots Restaurant, offer a peek at their ingredient lists and what to expect at their dining establishments.

Though their respective businesses are very different, all three professionals reveal a shared, three-pronged approach to eating seasonally in winter: greenhouses, root vegetables and the sweet accents provided by honey and jams.
 

Bring the green indoors
Greenhouses have become a solution for large-scale farmers as well as home gardeners who want to extend their growing season. But it is nearly impossible for a restaurant to grow all of the greens needed on site. What do the restaurants do? They turn to the Milwaukee’s ultimate greenhouse growers, Growing Power.

“During the winter we have Growing Power and they provide us with most of our greens so we can stay with summer orientated [vegetables].” says Zerkel at Roots, where diners have an appetite for nutritious salads, no matter the month.

Kelly also relies on the greenhouses of Growing Power, “I get salad greens from them, they have their summer and spring kind of mix and then we go into the winter mix which is a little more spinach, a few more sprouts,” says Kelly.

If you are looking for a simple option for home cooking, try a window greenhouse. Converting a southern exposure window into a few shelves of herbs and greens will give you aesthetic and delicious enjoyment throughout the winter. Or, follow Zerkel and Kelly to Growing Power. The urban farm on Milwaukee’s northwest side grows greens and sprouts year round. Visit their farm stand directly at 5500 W. Silver Spring Drive, or stop in at Outpost.

Love your roots
Many root vegetables can sustain cold storage and are a delicious, filling winter treat. “I’m happy to cook with root vegetables all winter,” says Zerkel.

Often, the local farmers who supply produce to restaurants and farmer’s markets during the summer months are equipped with root cellars — a long-standing agricultural standby that allows them to save and store part of their harvested crops. With the help of root cellars, Midwesterners can enjoy carrots, potatoes, cabbage, and onions during the winter. “It’s a part of life, people have been doing it for millennia, learning how to keep things from summer into the winter,” says Zerkel.

Roots Restaurant was originally developed in direct partnership with a 10-acre Cedarburg farm; an affiliation that has continued though the farmer is no longer involved with the restaurant. Zerkel has cultivated relationships with other area growers as well, and all of them provide Roots with the crops needed to create its popular meals.

There’s strength in numbers
Kelly’s restaurant, Meritage, has access to fantastic farm produce through Braise RSA (Restaurant Supported Agriculture). An RSA is based on the popular CSA model (Community Supported Agriculture) that many families rely on for fresh produce. In a CSA, families buy shares of local farmers’ produce in advance, receiving regular deliveries. In an RSA, the members are restaurateurs or chefs, and a business-to-business relationship is created. It is an ideal way for chefs and farmers to ensure appropriate supply and demand.

“[Braise] talks to the farmers and tells them what we want, they grow it for us, we buy in bulk, so we get a good price for what we want instead of each individual restaurant deciding what we need from individual people. We banded together and support the farmers. I get great food from the farmers and every year we all contribute to give the farmers money so that they can start their crop,” says Kelly.

For the non-vegan locavore, there are also plenty of farms in the area that sell protein options to pair with your root vegetables. Zerkel takes advantage of this, “there is a new cured meat company on Holton, right off of Capitol, if we could get pancetta from down the road, well, that’s like being in Italy,” says Zerkel, showing his excitement for eating locally. He is referring, of course, to Bolzano Artisan Meats, 3950 N. Holton St., owned by Scott Buer. But there are others providers: “We get all our pork from Wilson Farms in Burlington,” Zerkel says. “All our poultry and eggs come from Yuppie Hill Farms around the same area, and we just instituted a dairy program with Sassy Cow dairy and they come every week.”

Knowing your farmers and learning what types of food are available and when, is empowering for chefs and diners alike. Knowing the season’s crops enables a food lover to watch for them on restaurant menus, market tables and in co-ops. Once you become attuned to the trends, you’ll be surprised how far into the winter you can dine on locally grown food.

If you are interested in supported agriculture, Kelly will be hosting an RSA dinner at Meritage in February. “We do RSA dinners throughout the year, and the next one will be here. We rotate them through the different restaurants and chefs. There will be five of us taking part, and each one creates a different course.” The February dinner will feature chocolate by Omanhene, a local chocolate producer with a reputation for quality throughout the United States and Europe.
 

Bottle the sunshine
Human beings have been perfecting ways to store, pickle and preserve food for thousands of years. Around 3000 B.C., Egyptians were preserving herbs in olive oil; in biblical times, fisherman dried fish; and in modern times many fruit and vegetable growers freeze, dry or can their yield, knowing that once winter arrives they will have a pantry stocked with summer’s bounty.

“We do a lot of pickling, a lot of preserving, and dehydrating,” says Zerkel. “When strawberries are in season, we buy as many flats as we can. We go out to Cedarburg or Grafton to pick them and come back to cook them down into jellies and preserves, so sometimes you can get that taste of summer in the winter.”

And then there’s the local honey. Boucher of Amaranth is tapped in.: “Few would believe that an advantage of city living would be access to local food. Yet one of our neighbors is a grower and vendor at the Fondy Market. During the summer months when we sell baked goods at the farmer’s markets and close the café, we network and build relationships that carry on throughout the year,” says Boucher. “We are fortunate to be surrounded by local honey producers with the Wisconsin Honey Cooperative to our west and Walnut Way Conservation Corp to our east.”

So there you have it — the proof is in the pudding, and local bakers and chefs prove that regional foods continue to be available in Wisconsin, despite the snow and ice — and that makes January and February a lot more bearable, doesn’t it? Or dare we say enjoyable?


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