After a recent post about local sources of lamb and goat, one of Kentucky small farms’ finest champions wrote me:

“I just got a lamb from Larry Swartz in Lancaster, KY. I buy one from him every year and I think they are wonderful. He is such a good farmer. He doesn’t sell at farmer’s markets, but just markets lamb and beef to individuals.”

I asked for contact information, and got it.

“‘Larry Swartz and Genia McKee have Windhover Farm at 4010 Poor Ridge, Lancaster, KY. 40444, phone number 859-792-9660. They have a portable sawmill and produce quality lumber; they have Percheron horses and farm in many of the old ways. Their food products are Cheviot sheep, freezer beef and dairy goats. Both really have a passion for the land and are good sustainable farmers.”

I am so glad to know about Larry and Genia - and I bet you are, too. We need them, and they need us. So how do we find out people like them, except by accident? How do we learn about the growers near us, and how do they find us?

About 18 months ago I had a coffee shop epiphany (always possible at brilliant, sweet Third Street Stuff Cafe near my house). I realized that people interested in local food — as eaters, providers, and chefs –  could build a cooperative, wiki-style website together to help each other find local sources of food, drink, and more - including music, art, dishes, table linens — most of what we need for living.

In 2001, Partners for Family Farms developed a Kentucky Grown Directory (PDF, 320KB) that chefs and growers are still using to find each other. The Kentucky Department of Agriculture has many helpful tools, including a directory of Kentucky Farmers Markets.

Yet it’s still hard for us to find each other. I have kept the early result of my epiphany up and running — or at least up and present in about one percent of its potential — but have not worked recently to get others to pitch in and raise this website together. We can if we want. It’s a tool available for use.

Go to Make Mine Local to get a sense of how it works, and how it could work. Let me know if you would like a personal tour so you can contribute to the website. I’ll arrange it.

Last week journalist Michael Pollan wrote a letter to the President-Elect (whoever he may be) explaining how the next president’s role as farmer-in-chief affects our national security — a lot. If you don’t want to read those 8,000 words, you can listen to Pollan talk through the main points with Fresh Air’s Terry Gross. Thank you to my beautiful hula-hooping, fire-spinning neighbor for the Fresh Air tip.

Michael Pollan often cites Kentucky writer/novelist/poet/essayist/farmer Wendell Berry as a guide to remaking agriculture and food production that will keep us safe and well fed. Read the rest of this entry »

My circle of friends, colleagues, and loved ones is buzzing like a productive field of honeybees on a fine summer day - and it’s about Farmer in Chief, Michael Pollan’s fine, long piece in the October 12 New York Times Magazine’s annual Food Issue.

After a compact statement of the mess we’re in — something Pollan is becoming ever sharper in describing — the long list of fixes gloriously begins. The big umbrella: a sun-fueled food system.

Read the rest of this entry »

New York Times food writer Mark Bittman, usually quite down to earth, seems a bit bemused about whether to celebrate when places like Iowa begin to promote their local foods as reasons for travel. Since the tiniest, most rural places in Kentucky have always featured great gardeners, farmers, and cooks, I’m not at all bemused.

What’s new, seems to me, is the investment in promotion, carried out in Iowa by the state’s Arts Council, no less. Like Iowa — though I’d assert the Bluegrass State offers a more beautiful setting — Kentucky has ALL the ingredients to be a world food capital, attracting food tourists for repeat visits (and repeat dollars). Let’s go get ‘em.

A terrific film, “The Real Dirt on Farmer John,” is coming to Lexington’s wonderful Kentucky Theater on February 21, and it’s going to be free!

Here’s a description of the film, which I have seen and recommend for its truthfulness and openness about both farming and life:

The Real Dirt on Farmer John (2005); United States; not rated: Taggart Siegel’s documentary looks at John Peterson, a Midwestern farmer who opened his land to a communal group of hippies and artists in the 1960s and, during the ensuing decades, survived numerous natural and economic crises to maintain his farm. 5 and 7:30 p.m. Feb. 21, Kentucky Theatre.

We owe this free showing to the wonderful One World Film Festival, a Lexington jewel, now nine years old, that keeps getting better and better. Check out the other excellent free offerings all through February, and I’ll see you at the movies.

The Slow Food movement is slowly (of course) influencing more spheres of life. See “The Slow Life Picks Up Speed.”

Two things about that. First, ongoing gratitude to the New York Times for reopening all its articles, all the time, for all the people. That openness in a commercial news outlet is a marvel.

And second, when do we get to “Slow Work?” That’s my big interest.