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As we stayed home this weekend getting Louis house trained and giving him his crate time and play time, the rain continued to come down, the air was chilly, and the gray skies weren’t too inspiring.  My mind, half on grading student papers and half on watching what Louis was chewing on, wandered wistfully to more sunny climes. This tropics-born writer was beginning to feel the claustrophobia that arrives each fall as the cooler fall weather heralds cold winters. And to counter dark skies and rain, I popped up my photos from our recent summer trip to Hawaii, where we visited Dan’s brother Geoff and his wife, Kristin at the end of July.

Images of beaches, blue-blue oceans, as well as papayas and freshly chopped coconuts filled my screen and I had to share this vacation highlight with the Zomppa crowd.

 Our first day in Hawaii, still on East coast time, Dan and I were wide awake at 6am, ready to go to the Kapi’olani Community College Farmer’s Market in Honolulu, which Geoff promised was best early.  And was he right!

Held on Saturdays all year round, and co-sponsored by the Hawaii Farm Bureau Federation and the Culinary Institute at the community college, the market features only produce grown locally in Hawaii.  And wow, a lot can grow and be harvested in Hawaii.  We arrived to the sight of freshly brewed Kona coffee and the bustle of a market that draws the crowds of Hawaii’s largest city.

This was about 30x the size of any market here in rural Adams County! And it had all the unique qualities of a local market that represents a region about as geologically, biologically, and geographically as different as one can get from south-central Pennsylvania.  Fortified with coffee grown on the mountains of the Big Island, Geoff led us to the abalone stand, the lines already piling up.

A sea-snail (or herbivorous marine gastropod aka a marine mollusk) the abalone is not native to Hawaii. Like so much else on the island (including mangoes and papayas) it’s been introduced.  But, it’s production is also been closely monitored, and most of the local supply comes from the Big Island.  It can be cooked various ways, and makes an amazing breakfast boast barbecued and topped with some excellent soy and other secret sauces. (Geoff applied the sauces and I can’t quite remember what they were.)

And then we wandered: past stalls with bright orange papayas; fuchsia pink dragon fruit, and freshly caught fish.

We brought home the aptly named snake fruit (indigenous to Indonesia)…

…heart-shaped mountain apples (native to Malaysia)…

…avocados (native to Central Mexico) and other such delicacies that have found their home in Hawaii.

After a day at the beach, dinner was market fresh opal on a bed of lettuce, with mangoes and avocados.

What an excellent day in the sun. This tropics-born writer feels a bit more forfeited for the cold, temperate winters of south-central Pennsylvania.  There might not be papayas or avocados here but there’s memories of these goodies, and also a stash of local frozen berries in the freezer, and also honeycrisp apples just harvested, which makes being here, despite the rainy weather, not too bad either.

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Picking berries at the Penn State Fruit Lab in Biglerville, PA

It’s too hot for the salad greens of May, and the cherries of June. Now its blueberries and apricots, and the apples are on their way.

June cherries, July apricots

In my last post, I said I’d provide a “lay of the land” and the local contexts in which the Adams County Food Policy Council (ACFPC) is working to ensure a just and sustainable food system in our area.  Part of this local context is acknowledging Adams County’s strong farming tradition.

This farming tradition has been acknowledged by many but perhaps one of the best statements on its centrality to the area can be credited to President Dwight Eisenhower.  Eisenhower retired to a farm just outside the borough of Gettysburg. In his 1967 book, “At Ease: Stories I tell to Friends,” he wrote: “In a place like Gettysburg” both native and visitor “may easily become absorbed in the three days of conflict,” ignoring the fact that both before and since the bloodiest battle on US soil in 1863, “history was also made here in quiet lives, on farm and village street” (quote taken from the Adams County Historical Society website).

Eisenhower himself came to Gettysburg for the “quiet life,” using it as his retreat from the hustle and bustle of DC, and finally retiring here.  He also contributed to the area’s farming culture, breeding a show herd of black Angus cows.  Black Angus cows still grace the farm, which is now designated the Eisenhower National Historic site and open to visitors exploring the area. Cows in general are a common feature in Adams County, even gracing the battlefield, where they are allowed to graze. (For more about battlefield cows look for an upcoming post!)

cows and cannons

While cows are a feature of Adams County’s farms, here are a few other facts and statistics about our farms (gleaned from the 2007 brochure of Pennsylvania State Agricultural Extension Agency):

• There are about 1,260 farms in the county.
• The average farm size is 142 acres.
• About half the farms are run by individuals whose primary occupation is the farm. (And here’s an interesting fact, the ratio of male to female primary operators was 1,105 to 184, or in other words about 15% of farmers in Adams County are women keeping the county pace with national averages: see US 2007 Agricultural Census.)
• Almost half the farms in Adams County raise meat cattle (460; which probably explains why cows are a staple feature), there are 65 dairy operations, and 75 orchards. Hogs, chickens, and sheep also make up the farming landscape.
• Approximately a fourth of all farms (327) recorded hiring farm labor, both seasonal and permanent.

The Round Barn: a historic farm site, and a working farm market.

What do all these statistics add up to?  Simply put: we have a vibrant farming community, but like all farming communities, especially those that demonstrate small family owned farms, there are always social, political, and economic complexities and challenges.  For example, the average age of an Adams County farmer in 2007 was reported as 55 years.  And though over half the county (56 percent) was designated farmland in the US Agricultural Census of 1982, aging farmers and real estate development pressures have threatened and continue to threaten local farmland.

The good news is that citizens in Adams County aren’t sitting by simply bemoaning the threats to their farming heritage, or sighing over the complexities of managing local food systems in a competitive global economy. Instead, they are tackling these issues head on. While a plethora of organizations and groups such as the Adams County Land Conservancy, the Young Grower’s Alliance, and the Adams County Local Food Network are vigorously confronting the issues, Penn State’s Agricultural Extension office in Gettysburg has taken the lead through its Ag Innovations Summit.As Katie Ellis, a key organizer of the summit states, the main point of the summit is to answer the question “what do we need to address next to ensure the continuation of a stable future for Adams County agriculture?” (qouted in Penn State Ag Extension news.) What make the Ag Innovations Summit unique is its agenda to bring various groups together and to think holistically about the various issues confronting agriculture, including those related more specifically to local food consumption. For this reason, the Adams County Food Policy Council (ACFPC) with its focus on food security is also invited to the table.

Working collaboratively within this larger network, the ACFPC is plugging away at ensuring a stable farm and food future for Adams County. In my next post, I’ll share some of its innovative work, including that of the Fairshare project.  More to come. In the meantime, I’m off to partake in the bounty of the land. Made at home with local ingredients: Blueberry sherbet and cherry stout here I come!

Blueberry Sherbet Recipe:

 For a single batch:

4 cups berries (any type, I used blueberries)
2 cups sugar
2 cups buttermilk

Mash berries and sugar to get the juices out. Add buttermilk and mix well. Pour in trays (I usually use cake pans) and freeze medium hard. Then break into pieces and blend in a mixer (I use my kitchenaid) to get a good texture. Freeze in containers.  Alternatively, you can use an ice cream maker, but I’m never tried one. Doubling the recipe is perfect if you have a lot of berries.

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Moving

I’ve been dabbling in food politics ever since I got to Gettysburg College located in south-central Pennsylvania three years ago, and volunteered to teach a First Year Seminar class on Food and the Environment. Like most newly minted PhDs in the US coming straight out of graduate school and applying for jobs, I wasn’t necessarily feeling too choosey about where I lived as long as I could afford to live and put my PhD to good use. So, when I got offered a job that fit my professional interests–assistant professor in Environmental Studies at one of the nation’s top liberal arts colleges–I packed my bags, said a tearful good-bye to the vibrant Twin Cities of Minnesota, and together with husband, Dan, and dog, Elli, drove 1000-miles south-east to a part of the country with which none of us were really familiar.  Dan and I joked that we now had our own “Gettysburg Address” but like most Americans about all we knew of Gettysburg was this bandied historical fact that had marked a turn in the nation’s politics.

Elli and Dan

What we didn’t know, and what I have learned, and continue to learn is how Gettysburg might play a different role in the turning of the nation’s politics. Specifically, in looking for local resources to share with students in my first year seminar on food, I discovered the Adams County Food Policy Council (ACFPC), a grassroots initiative with an impressive vision for the county of which Gettysburg is capital:

“All residents of Adams County will have access to a safe, nutritious, affordable and adequate food supply within a sustainable system which promotes the local economy”
—Adams County Food Policy Council

In their framing White Paper, “Closing the Food Gap in Adams County: A Proposal for Comprehensive Solutions through Community Action” (March 2009), the ACFPC drew from US Census income and household data, federal and state unemployment data, and county level statistics on recipients of school lunch programs and other federal food assistance programs (e.g., Farmer’s Market Nutrition Program Vouchers), as well as health assessments to make a grim point. Despite being an agriculturally vibrant community: “approximately 10% of Adams County families are food insecure and 26% of families with children are food insecure.”

That’s 1 in 10 families in Adams County that worry about the quantity and quality of their food and 1 in 4 families that are dependent on school lunch programs to help feed the next generation! This, even as the county boasts ~1280 farms with a combined revenue value of $216 million and is ranked #1 in the state and #5 in the country in apple production (USDA 2007 Census of Agriculture).

Packing crates with apple trees in the distance

Troubled by this baseline data, the ACFPC has stepped in with determination to close the food gap. The ACFPC’s vision to balance out the inequities of the current food system is a specific response to a specific place and time–Adams County, in south central Pennsylvania at the start of the twenty-first century. In my next article, to continue my ruminations on the ACFPC’s efforts and unique local contexts in which they function, I’ll give you a lay of the land to help situate you more firmly into this local context.

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