A witty friend who is a superb pie-maker in another Commonwealth sent me some photos (including Kitty With Hubbard, left) documenting his success in taming an alien Hubbard into splendid “pumpkin” pies for Thanksgiving. The images are tiny, but they tell a tale: Human Conquers Hubbard: Perfect Pies Result.

In contrast to Hubbards’ gnarly looks, Washington Post writer Barbara Damrosch awards serious beauty points to butternut squash, another much-loved winter staple. Kitchen Gardeners International received permission and reprinted her 0ctober 30 story, which suggests two types of butternut squash seeds to order for next year’s garden: Waltham, and a new butternut-buttercup cross called Honey Nut, available from High Mowing Organic Seeds.

Photo Credits: MAR - Thank you!

All this has something to do with the photo above, too. Lois Mateus, right, generously shared the photo and a Turkey Tale with me. On the left, Proof on Main’s chef Michael Paley holds a prized Bourbon Red heritage turkey Lois reared at Tallgrass Farm in Mayo, Mercer County.

Lois and Tim Peters, her husband, also raise grass-fed goats and Angus cattle sustainably, and use their farm — which is protected by an Agricultural Conservation Easement — as a living laboratory intended “to preserve farmland from random development through conservation easements and to demonstrate that it is possible to produce food of the highest quality, working in harmony with the environment and nature.”

Sadly for the turkey, though - and for Lois, who is spending a day this week “processing” her birds — happy turkey days on the farm must end so Chef Paley can serve a Kentucky breed of turkey, grown sustainably on a Kentucky farm, at his Kentucky-centric restaurant this Thanksgiving. We know from Michael Pollan, Joel Salatin, Barbara Kingsolver and others that growing poultry sustainably on pasture can be good for the birds, the pasture, other livestock, and certainly for the humans who eat the delicious, life-sustaining results. We trust the diners will offer real gratitude for this food.

So much happens at 21c and Proof to expand the usual notions of Kentucky. In the hotel, a stately space, owners Laura Lee Brown and Steve Wilson display witty, engaging art from their private collection. The result, for me at least, was wonder. Wonder of the “I am so glad to be alive and be here taking this all in” sort, not an everyday experience once one passes the age of five - not even if one IS a Kentuckian surrounded by wonders every day.

Brown and Wilson’s building, contents, and guest satisfaction just landed 21c the number 16 spot on Condé Nast’s 2008 Readers’ Choice list of the Top 100 Hotels in the United States. This follows a spot on Condé Nast’s 2007 “hot list.” I find the 2008 honor particularly compelling, because visitors to a 90-room hotel in a midsized lower midwest/upper south city ranked the experience so positively that 21c keeps company on the list with a slew of Four Seasons and Ritz-Carltons in Chicago, New York City, and other likelier “hotel cities.”

People like 21c. Perhaps because 21c so clearly likes people.

So how did Lois Mateus, who has her own multi-faceted and quite amazing life story, end up talking turkey with the people at Proof? In part, Lois says she and 21c co-owner Steve Wilson are “best old friends and farmers who are still honing their childhood 4-H skills and rural footings as 21st century champions of local food.” Steve and his wife, Laura Lee Brown, farm sustainably in Oldham County, raising bison and vegetables that show up on Chef Paley’s Proof menus. Steve took part in the 4-H International Youth Exchange program, IFYE, a program I “met” when I served in the U.S. Peace Corps in the Philippines.

I do hope 4-H and FFA programs in Kentucky are going to grow and improve, developing grounded, capable leaders in cities as well as small towns. We need lots more people like these “best old friends” to guide Kentucky to its full agricultural, environmental, and human potential. All moves in that direction call for heartfelt thanksgiving.

Browsing a library copy of Gourmet over the weekend, I was taken with a beautiful photo of “Unstuffed Sweet and Sour Cabbage.” In addition to the photo, two more things got my attention: I realized I had every single ingredient in my house, and that all but the seasonings and cranberries had come from Kentucky’s earth and nurturing. Second, the recipe promises the flavors of famously slow-to-make-and-cook cabbage rolls in just one hour. One hour is not fast food, but it’s manageable in my kitchen most nights.

I made the recipe last night, and it is a keeper. It is not as sensually pleasing as the little individual stuffed cabbage rolls, and the “juice” is not as richly flavored, quite, but what a fall and winter dish! I did not try to complete it in an hour, and probably spent 90 minutes on the “deconstructed cabbage rolls” from start to finish, doing other things along the way.

See the recipe here.

Watch a short video of Andrea Albin developing the recipe here.

Watch a shorter video (about 2.5 minutes) of the photo shoot for two Gourmet recipes, including the cabbage rolls, here.

What were the sources of my Kentucky ingredients? I had bought all but the canned tomatoes at the Lexington Farmers Market, offered by several different growers.

Chicken stock: In June we roasted an Elmwood Stock Farm certified organic pastured hen, and I boiled the bones in water — nothing else because I’m lazy — and froze the resulting broth. The onions and Black Angus ground round (instead of the chuck in the recipe) also grew at Elmwood, also certified organic.

Ground pork: Stone Cross Farm (free of antibiotics, steroids, and hormones) came by way of Blue Moon Farm distribution. The sustainably grown garlic also came from Blue Moon.

Cabbage: Silas Farm

And those canned tomatoes? My kind, energetic and good-looking Wayne County brother canned them from his own bountiful garden in 2007.

The recipe makes enough for several meals. I froze the leftovers on the bet they will be even more delightful later in the winter when a fifteen minute reheat will bring them steaming to the table.

I would not have guessed, though, that I would invest as much time as I do now to look for good food and be part of small but elaborate distribution systems. Even more, I would not have imagined how much pleasure I take in knowing more of the people, land and systems that produce my food.

I know not everyone can take the time to hunt down local food sources, and many do not want to. I trust excellent, stable, affordable local food distribution systems are in the works and hope we will enjoy them in the next few years.

In the meantime, we can buy and rely on fine local foods by sharing information with each other, having patience and flexibility, and making our wishes known to each other and to growers. Especially as farmers markets are now closing for winter, you may find you can keep bringing home good local foods if you talk directly with growers and processors. Some of them will make special plans and accommodations, especially if you will buy a substantial amount of their product. You may work this out more easily by sharing with neighbors or family.

Here are some local food sources you may not know about in central Kentucky.

Lamb and beef from Four Mountains Farm at Hillsboro, in Fleming County, Kentucky. 859.333.2257. Friends have recommended Brooke Alexander’s grass-fed lamb highly, and it turns out Brooke also produces beef. Brooke says, “We have about 20 beef animals and about 130 lambs available each year.The only tricky thing about the beef is that it’s good to order several months in advance so that I can make sure to save animals back (rather than sell them on traditional markets at lighter weights).  For example, I may sell some in a special sale in mid-December, and I also have a friend who wants some heifers.  Several people have already ordered beef from this group to be ready in June.  Likewise, the people who are getting their beef in December started ordering this summer.  At the moment, I sell whatever is not ordered on the traditional market, especially when it is expensive to carry the larger animals over the winter with hay supplies tight (drought). I hope to get to the point where I am selling everything off the farm, but it takes advance planning since a beef takes a year and a half to be ready!”

It sounds like people in Fleming and nearby counties have a wonderful option available to them for good lamb and beef. Another meat option is recently established a bit west of Four Mountains.

Lamb and goats from Bluegrass Lamb & Goat in Paint Lick, in Garrard County, with a second processing plant in Mercer County. 859.925.2000. I have just learned about Bluegrass Lamb & Goat from trusted friends, Blue Moon Farm owners Jean and Leo Keene. Leo and Jean grow their own crops sustainably. They have cultivated a network of support for delicious, eco-friendly food and food practices among producers, processors, restaurants and consumers.  Leo is a pioneer in central Kentucky local food distribution — and I benefit often. Leo helps find good foods that are hard to locate, and then works out ways to get the foods and the eater together with the fewest possible food miles involved. Leo can help connect both restaurants and individuals with Bluegrass Lamb & Goat products. Call Leo at 859.328.2401 - and read on for another new local food option that involves Jean and Leo…

Buy local in bulk, with planning. Thanks to a customer who wanted to keep enjoying what Blue Moon offers at the Lexington Farmers Market from April through October each year, Blue Moon is trying out a way to provide customers substantial quantities of foods from a small network of suppliers. Pre-ordering and some waiting is required, so plan ahead. The scale and scope of products is broad, and includes Blue Moon’s own products (garlic, sourdough bread, garlic scape pesto, homemade pasta, and more.) Jean says, “Blue Moon Farm represents Stone Cross Farm from Spencer County (Taylorsville) for pastured pork and beef products, handmade soaps (and around Christmas their own raw milk cheese), Colcord Farm in Bourbon County (Paris) for grass finished beef, Kenny’s Farmhouse (raw milk) Cheeses from Barren County (near Bowling Green), Sunrise Bakery in Lexington for Artisan breads and pastries, plus we have our own Blue Moon products.  All meat and dairy products are A.S.H.-free (antibiotic, steroid, hormone).” A detailed list of products and prices is available. Call Leo at 859.328.2401.

When dealing with growers, producers, farmers, processors - I know you will do this anyway, but just a friendly reminder - make it worth their while. Order plenty. Share, freeze, preserve if necessary. That way, our homemade, jerry-rigged, seat-of-the-blue jean, temporary-we-hope local foods distribution “system” can be good for all of us, until a better system comes through.

Every Saturday I get to sleep in much later than the farmers, and I can always leave if I get too cold or too wet, so for me the Market in bad weather is an adventure. I doubt the growers feel that way. They get up early (I’ve heard 2:00 AM mentioned more than once) and stay through wind, cold, and rain. Most amazing of all to me - they smile and offer a lot of welcome cheer as they serve us, even when we are cold and grumpy.

Here’s a little photo-report on some of what I found this week, late in Kentucky’s growing season. After a stop for Hubbard Squash, watermelon radishes, turnips, sweet potatoes, and fresh lettuces at Elmwood Stock Farm, I moved west along Vine Street to the appetizer and dessert courses — all under one tent.

Susan Miller, on the left in these photos, has delighted hundreds of customers this year by becoming the first local goat cheese producer to sell at Lexington Farmers Market. Her Bleugrass Chevre will be available all winter, thanks to smartly timed breeding, Susan says. She will move indoors to Victorian Square on Saturdays throughout the winter. W&M Market also sells Bleugrass Chevre, and they are open every day.

Elaine Shay, right, must represent the absolutely newest producer at the Lexington Farmers Market. Late this fall Elaine and co-owner Marianne Swintosky began bringing Viburnum Valley Farm Confections to the Market on Saturdays. Some of the confections — either pastries or luscious truffles built from Jamieson’s Chocolates — include Bleugrass Chevre. Every bite is delicious, even including a sample of one of my least favorite desserts of all time, carrot cake. Of course in this case the carrot cake was lighter than eiderdown, with “orange-infused…” something that sounded so over the top I missed it. Like Bleugrass Chevre, Viburnum Valley Farm Confections will move into Victorian Square for Saturday markets during the winter, planning to be there weekly until the Market moves back outdoors in the spring of 2009.

Lexington Farmers Market’s much appreciated manager Jeff Dabbelt famously wears shorts most cold, wet days — but Saturday even he covered up. Jeff does the work of producing the Market’s weekly newsletter, which I read to get news about what (and whom) to expect at the Market each week.

If you want to know what day, exactly, the Market will move indoors to Vic Square, or when the next farm tour may happen, go to the Lexington Farmers Market website and sign up for the weekly newsletter by email. Look in the left column for the sign-up box.

I didn’t ask, but I think Jeff is drinking a cup of CaffeMarco locally roasted coffee, about which a bit more later.

I enjoyed watching the growers buying each other’s products. In the photo at right, Meadowbloom Farm’s Sandy Canon and Elmwood Stock Farm’s Mac Stone stock up on Bleugrass Chevre. The chevre comes with “add-ins,” by the way. Most weeks Susan brings cups of soft white spreadable cheese laced with dark green bits of chives. Sometimes she brings chipotle, boasting a flavor that is not too hot and a tempting pale pink-orange hue. Both are heavenly on a cracker, toasted homemade bread, or (a new discovery) toasted split cornbread.

CaffeMarco faithfully bringing freshly brewed coffee made from freshly roasted beans to the Market each week. Here CaffeeMarco uses a construction “artifact” to help growers and customers stay warm and awake.

Late this year I have discovered the deliciously sweet broccoli and the small, intensely dark red beets grown at Silas Farms & Greenhouse in Bourbon County. The growers tell me they get praise in spring for the sweetness of their asparagus, too.  The final photograph shows both how bundled up all the marketeers were on Saturday and how much food Silas Farms and others still brought to Market.

We are fortunate people here in central Kentucky, and Saturday’s cold, rainy, windy Market underscored our good fortune.

The problem with the city squashes may have been poor soil, early picking, or both. Apparently winter squashes vary considerably in taste and quality depending on the soil and situation that nourish them. More on that below.

This fall, excited about discovering Elmwood Stock Farm’s Buttercup Kabocha, I have talked a lot of squash with my kind and dashing younger brother. He called this week to tell me about Pumpkin Pie Popsicles, which sound fantastic. I found an online recipe that uses the maple syrup, cream and spices he described. As our talks continue, I have been working up my courage to buy and try a Hubbard squash. Why courage? Notice how the Hubbard in the photo above left has kind of a dominating attitude toward the smaller members of the family? Or see here just how menacing a Hubbard can look. Plus the things are so hard, and there’s so much of them (up to 50 pounds, and maybe more), that I have never thought I could win if I brought one into my kitchen and approached it with a knife.

I learned recently, though, that Hubbards are incredibly long keepers, and I’m interested in all the ways to keep eating local foods deep into Kentucky’s winter. A recent article by Janet Fletcher in the San Francisco Chronicle positively inspired me about Hubbards and all their hard wintery relatives. This article is so rich, thorough and interesting, and has such good recipes, that I recommend you go there and read it all the way through.

As promised earlier, you will learn more about squash and terroir, the ways squash sugars respond to soil, sun, temperature, minerals, elevation, water and other qualities of the place that nurtures the plants.

The article may nudge you to sharpen your big axe. Apparently that’s what it takes to tame a Hubbard.

I may not have to spend a week making cassoulet after all. Chef Ouita Michel of the marvelous Holly Hill Inn in Midway plans to cook a special cassoulet made with fine local ingredients. I bought tickets after I read Ouita’s description of the dish and the meal, excerpted below (links are my additions):

On Friday, November 14, we are celebrating the coming change of seasons with a cassoulet dinner, one of my favorite dishes for the fall.  Not only is cassoulet a delicious meal, but it provides a wonderful experience of sharing, beginning with friends gathered around the warm, bubbling meal to crack the crust.

Cassoulet has humble peasant origins in Southern France.  It’s a slow-cooked, rich stew of various meats, white beans and herbs.  The dish is named after the pot in which it is traditionally baked - the cassole - which is shaped like an inverted cone - designed to maximize the area of the delicious crust.

We began the preparation of our Holly Hill cassoulet more than two weeks ago by curing and slow cooking plump geese in duck fat for confit.  Local producer Patrick Kennedy from Stone Cross Farm has provided his juicy pork belly and Nancy Cirigliano and Kathy Meyer their fabulous lamb.  All these meats, plus a special garlic sausage from France, are slow cooked with white beans to make this most comfortable of comfort foods.

(Even though this sounds like a meat lover’s paradise - and it surely is - we are also preparing a vegetarian cassoulet, featuring the local and organic fall harvest from Elmwood and Three Springs.

And speaking of local lamb - later this week I’ll “dish” about a source close to central Kentucky.

Did you know that two million Canadians each year take advantage of a free milk calendar produced by Canadian dairy farmers? This is an udderly Canadian thing to do - Canadians being so full of good sense and commitment to living well. The home economist who develops the recipes that boost the calendar’s popularity “has a rule that unless an ingredient is available in her local grocery store in the small town of Buckhorn, Ont., she doesn’t use it in the calendar. Green curry paste came to Buckhorn this year, so a recipe for Thai Pork Stir-Fry is featured in October 2009.”

Even San Francisco Board of Supervisors member Harvey Milk, murdered 30 years ago, is in the news courtesy of a new movie, Milk, starring Sean Penn.

I’ll take all these events as signs that milk is on its way back into our lives, in ways that go beyond even the charming milk mustache ads. I’m talking real milk, fresh milk, local milk, from pristine local dairies.

Anne Mendelson points out that the idea of drinking fresh, unsoured milk is an unusual one in the history of humans and milk (or “milch”) animals. Mendelson touts yogurt as a particularly beneficial, delightful way to benefit from cows’ rare abilities to turn grass into nutrition that sustains humans.

I’ll forgo touting my own favorite low-temp yogurt, and instead remind you that cool fall days and cold winter days invite homemade hot chocolate — an inexpensive luxury so easy to make you’ll slap your forehead about the times you used a cardboard-flavored powdered mix. If you want to do something amazing that takes more time but still very little money, make your own homemade marshmallows. (How can a Martha Stewart recipe on Oprah’s website lead us astray?) Actually - I’ve made these marshmallows, and can report a big success, making me feel like a Kentucky version of Ferran Adriâ.

Dana credits God’s goodness, and then names some factors and practices that humans can bring to raising flavorful fruit. Here’s what I understood from Dana’s list.

> Clay builds flavor. The soil at Reed Valley Orchard, at the margins of Bourbon and Harrison Counties is clay-ey, not like the rich dark loam in the heart of the Bluegrass. Whether it’s nutrients in the clay, or ways the clay makes the apple tree take in and process nutrients — clay contributes to apple flavor. “Richer soils will build more tree,” Dana says, “but clay seems to give the fruit more flavor.”

> Sunlight builds flavor. The Reeds prune their trees skillfully, so sunlight reaches more fruit directly. Dana says some researchers have figured out an ideal leaf-to-fruit ratio for best fruit flavor: 40 leaves per individual fruit. Dana doesn’t have to count leaves one by one. With his years of study and work, he knows what that 40-to-1 ratio looks like, and how to use pruning and thinning to get to it.

> Thinning the fruit builds flavor. Dana says, “Each tree has a certain amount of sugar. The tree divides that sugar among all the fruit on the tree. If there are fewer apples, each gets more sugar.”

> Picking fruit when it is ripe captures flavor. Dana says there are a lot of ways to test for ripeness, and ripeness matters. While it is easy to tell when to begin picking some apple varieties he has grown for years, Dana uses science to decide when some of his apples are ripe. When needed, the Reeds use a refractometer, seed color (brown is good), an iodine/starch test that measures how much starch has been converted to sugar, and more. “Some people in the Bluegrass start picking too early,” Dana says. They need to take some Flavor Lessons from Dana.

We were talking about apples, but I award five mental flavor stars to fruits from Reed’s all through the growing season: blueberries, plums, blackberries, black raspberries (my favorite), tart Montmorency cherries, and the glorious parade of late summer pears and apples.

The more I learn about the work, thought, patience, dedication, and love that go into the wonderful central Kentucky foods I so enjoy, the luckier I feel. I hope our local food economy keeps ripening, maturing to the benefit of growers and eaters both.

Usually the customer line at the Reed stand is long and patient, but not as patient as the kind people behind the bushels and pecks, who offer sample slices of any apple that interests any customer. Saturday the conditions were good for enjoying a tasty conversation with Dana Reed, the superb orchardist whose skills burst through in each bite of a Reed Valley fruit. I will do a separate post about the ways Dana and his work crew cultivate intensely flavorful fruit.

Here, though, my purpose is to share what I have learned about storing and keeping fresh apples for the next few months — and enjoying them. This will be my first year to get serious about storing local apples for eating fresh well into the winter.

Successful storage, for me, has to begin with an apple with flavor and texture that appeal to me. A mushy, tasteless apple won’t “call” to me from the refrigerator, and so it just won’t do.

I’m enchanted with the Gold Rush apple at the moment, as I am every fall. Trudie Reed once said that Gold Rush seemed to her like it included all the tastes of all the other apples. The firm, crisp texture and the intense sweet/tart flavor make it a favorite of mine. Dana told me yesterday that he had just been reading about Gold Rush, and part of its distinction is that it is high in both acids AND sugars. Fortunately, it is a good candidate for my experiment in stretching out the fresh local apple season by several months.

For weeks, every worker at the Reed stand has encouraged each apple-loving shopper to store some apples in a cool place for the coming months. The instructions apply to Gold Rush, Arkansas Black, Granny Smith, and most other apples that ripen in October: Enclose unwashed apples in sealed plastic bags. Store in the refrigerator or other cool place. Eat throughout the winter.

Nursery catalogs tout Gold Rush because it retains its crispness and flavor after as many as seven months in cool storage. This year I put about a half bushel of Gold Rush in Ziploc bags in my refrigerator. Dana Reed says the sealed plastic creates a micro-climate that holds some needed humidity around the apples. Without the bags, the refrigerator’s drying tendencies would probably make the fruit wither and wrinkle.

A friend joins me in the Gold Rush Apple Storage Experiment (GRASE). We’ll compare field notes. Maybe I will also remember to report the outcome.