Pikeville – Community Farm Alliance

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Breaking Beans Radio Show #18: Cooking Up Local Food

July 5, 2017 CFA Admin

Aired: July 5, 2017

Host Sister Kathy is joined by Kristen Smith from the Wrigley Taproom, Matt Corbin from The Blue Raven and a few Pikeville Farmers Market Vendors to talk about “Cooking Up Local Food”.

Find other episodes and Breaking Beans stories here:

http://cfaky.org/blog

Download this and other past episodes here:

https://archive.org/details/@bre akingbeans

The Breaking Beans Variety Radio Show airs on 88.7 WMMT (online too!) the first Wednesday of every month at 6pm featuring stories, interviews, recipes, and news from the food and farming worlds in the Appalachian region! Hosted by Breaking Beans Fellow Sister Kathy Curtis.

Breaking Beans: The Appalachian Food Story Project is an initiative of Community Farm Alliance to tell the story of how local food and farming in Eastern Kentucky can contribute to a bright future in the mountains. Eastern Kentucky is at the point where it can foster a food system that is equitable and accessible to all, provides fresh nutritious food, and serves as an economic generator that builds community wealth. With a rich history of food and farming, stories of how Eastern Kentucky is already growing in that direction – and the challenges along the way – are important for informing people and policy alike.

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It All Went Down in a Parking Lot During Hillbilly Days…

June 21, 2017 CFA Admin

By Sister Kathy Curtis

As these things usually do, it started with the question: “where can I get…?” and ended up with money and goods changing hands. Oh, and a really awesome meal for a 100 people.

This is a true story and none of the names have been changed because these guys want you to know what they are doing.

First up in our cast of characters is Chef William Gentry. He is a personal chef by trade and the man responsible for feeding Chris Stapleton and his crew on their recent tour. Country Music Award winner Chris Stapleton, is a local boy. He grew up in the small town of Staffordsville, Kentucky, which is just outside of Paintsville, located between the city and the Paintsville Lake. The tour had him playing in Roanoke, Virginia on Friday night, then packing up and driving all night to get to Pikeville for a Saturday show at the Hillbilly Days Festival.

Chris for all his greatness is not the star of this story though. Back to Chef William.

“Chef William Gentry specializes in creating delicious local food prepared with environmentally responsible practices. After fifteen years of working in professional kitchens, Chef William Gentry has moved his focus to the home kitchen. As the sous-chef at Tayst Restaurant (Nashville’s first certified green restaurant) and chef of Local Kitchen Catering at the side of Executive Chef Jeremy Barlow, Gentry developed great relationships with local farmers that he wants to bring to your table”. (Source: http://chefwilliamgentry.com/)

Apparently, great relationships with local farmers is something Chef William continues to do while on the road. When he asked about local farmers in the Pikeville area, he was told to contact Suzanne Stumbo, UK Extension Agent for Pike County. So, I asked her to tell what happened next:

“I was emailed by Chef William Gentry who wanted to procure local produce for a dinner. Over a period of about 2 weeks we communicated back and forth to determine what could be provided locally. I gave him the contact information for Four Petal Farm, Appalachian Meats, and Indian Creek Settlement. I couldn’t think of anyone else local to provide fresh products. Everybody was just starting for 2017. Even the high tunnels were just being installed” said Suzanne.

Next, in our story is John Rehmeyer of Four Petal Farm:

“Chef Gentry called me and asked what we had for sale, then he went down the list of what he wanted and how much. He knew what he was looking for” John [Rehmeyer] told me.

Chris Stapleton and his entourage left Roanoke about midnight which put Chef Gentry in the parking lot of the Pikeville Food City at 7:00am.

“He called to tell me when he would be there, so me and the girls loaded up the truck. We got to Food City and went inside to find him. He was easy to spot. He was the only guy in the place with dreadlocks. Together, we went out to the truck. As we walked out up pulled Jon [Reinford] from Appalachian Meats in his Explorer. I have to admit; Chef Gentry was a little surprised by the quality of what we had. After all it was Hillbilly Days, with its deep-fried Reese’s Cups and all.”

Quality is something John knows about. He and his wife Cathy have been taught by a local celebrity, Matt Corbin owner of two Pikeville favorites: The Blue Raven and Sliced. Corbin is known to be a real champion of buying local ingredients for his restaurants. Sliced even has the Four Petal Farm Pizza is a menu item featuring ingredients from the Rehmeyer’s. John [Rehmeyer] says, “Matt has told us what chefs are looking for when it comes to fresh food”.

And what did Chef William get from our local producers? Quality.

“We gave him beautiful purple sprouting broccoli, snow white casper kale and flowerets, crispy lacinto kale, and we had some of Emily Whitakers’ Windy Hills coffee in our store, so we tossed that in there too” said John [Rehmeyer].

“He got Ribeye and New-York Strip steaks and chicken from us” said Jon [Reinford], from Appalachian Meats.

“So, he handed me my money and I handed him the produce and the girls and I headed home. And Appalachian Meats Jon, was right behind me. Deal done and the sun hadn’t gotten over the ridge top yet” said John [Rehmeyer].

***

I loved hearing this story and wanted to share it with you for two reasons:

First of all, I love hearing how people are working together to develop our local food system. When Suzanne got the call from Chef William, she knew what names to give him because she is “committed to working with the small farmers in our area”. When John Rehmeyer talked to Chef William about what he had for sale, he knew what chefs were looking for because of conversations he and Cathy have had with Matt Corbin of the Blue Raven. It takes a lot of people to create a “system”.

Second, and most important, if a chef from New York City can go out of his way to find fresh local food in Pikeville Kentucky, why don’t we? We have an abundance of local produce and meats here in the mountains of Central Appalachia, much of it being produced by small family farms. To me it seems like buying food straight from the farmer is a delicious way to get healthy food, support my neighbor and build the local economy.

Don’t know a farmer personally? Find a farmers market. Just about every county in the region has one. Here is a handy website to find one that is Kentucky Proud. Additionally, you can call your local extension agent or ask your neighbor or…well you get the idea.

Until next time, KC.

Breaking Beans: Appalachian Food Story Project is an initiative of Community Farm Alliance to tell the story of how local food and farming in Eastern Kentucky can contribute to a bright future in the mountains. Read the stories at cfaky.org/blog

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Breaking Beans Radio #17: Friends, Markets, and Grow Appalachia

June 7, 2017 CFA Admin

Aired: June 7, 2017

Sister Kathy is joined by Emily Whittaker from Perry County where among other things she manages the farmers’ market and roasts her own brand of coffee, Windy Hills. Other guests include David Cooke, Executive Director of Grow Appalachia and Joyce Pinson, from the Pikeville Farmers Market.

Find other episodes and Breaking Beans stories here:

http://cfaky.org/blog

Download this and other past episodes here:

https://archive.org/details/@breakingbeans

Hosted by Breaking Beans Fellow Sister Kathy Curtis.

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Farming, Cooking and Teaching in Pike County

June 11, 2015 CFA Admin

by Sister Kathy Curtis

Kelly Scott has always wanted to be a farmer. She grew up as a city girl in Pikeville where her parents were business owners, but her grandparents farmed. “They were miners but they always had a little plot of land for a garden. My grandmother cooked and grew and saved everything and I wanted to do that.”

Scott got her chance when the family moved back to Kentucky to her husband’s home place with two hundred or so acres on Joe’s Creek in Pike County. Most of their land is mountainous but they have “about four acres of flat land, which is a lot in our area”. Scott’s husband Dean, who grew up working in the garden, isn’t always as excited about all the work that goes into farming, saying he already did that. “But I haven’t” remarks Scott.

When asked how she finds the time to work a garden, raise chickens, grow food for her family, and teach full time, she admits that she has to let some things go. “You learn from your mistakes. You plan a lot and do what you can.”

In 2014 they grew enough to feed her family, put up and give away but it wasn’t enough. “By February we were out of pickles and beans. We just didn’t grow enough”. This year the Scott’s are slowly adding to their garden with the addition of cold frames and a greenhouse so that in the fall they can extend their growing season into the cooler months and grow more food.

Scott teaches biology and environmental science at Pikeville High School, passing on her passion for the environment and growing and cooking real food. She wants her student to learn about the world they are inheriting. “I want them to know why it’s important to buy local and grow their own food. And to be able to pronounce everything they eat.”

Her passion for teaching her students about food means that every year she shows the documentary Food Inc. to her classes. They also incubate chicken eggs each year. In fact, that is how she ended up raising chickens herself.

“One year we had a little too much water in the incubator. I came into class one morning and all but one had drowned.” Her students named the survivor “Lucky” and the entire student body came to her lab to get a peek. Scott brought Lucky home, bought some more pullets to keep it company and has been incubating eggs ever since. This year the class had better luck, hatching 15 of the eggs.

Scott is also the faculty advisor for Teens Who Care, an offshoot of the school’s Personal Responsibility in a Desirable Environment (PRIDE) Club. In 2014, Pikeville High School had a team that went all the way to finals in the state Junior Chef competition. After that, so many kids expressed an interest in learning how to cook that twice a month students gather in her classroom before school to get cooking tips. Several of those students were in the 2015 Pikeville High School Cooking Team who recently won the regional competition with their taco bowl.

“We’ve created the taco bowl recipe with brown rice and black beans and homemade seasonings for the ground beef. We even make homemade salsa.” The students hope to get their recipe approved for use in the school kitchen. They have been asked to cater events locally.

From incubating chickens and creating recipes in the classroom to making home-made seasoning mixes and “waxed paper”, environmental education is key to Scott. “Knowing what is in the food we eat is important”, says Scott. “Do we really want to be a science experiment?”

That’s food for thought, especially coming from a science teacher.

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Pikeville Elementary’s “Low Tunnel” Garden Survives Unheated and Undaunted

March 11, 2015 CFA Admin

by Mark W. Kidd

As snow from the latest winter storm began to melt away from the Pikeville Elementary grounds and classes resumed, students involved in the school’s garden program already had an idea what conditions they would find at their project. As part of the Student Technology Leadership Program curriculum this year, students had installed an automated reporting system that tweets the low temperature forecast at the garden every day.

The news for returning students was good. Despite temperatures as low as -20 degrees and a 15-inch load of snow and ice that damaged roofs in some areas, the kale garden and “salad bar” garden survived intact within unheated low tunnels.

Low tunnels are built with curved lengths of inexpensive PVC conduit — usually available in the electrical section of hardware stores — that serve as hoops. These hoops are then covered with plastic sheeting in order to protect and insulate the garden beds underneath.

Pikeville Elementary’s low tunnels provide opportunities for hundreds of students to help grow and eat fresh foods including kale, turnips, and pak choi throughout the school year. Testing and improving low-cost winter garden techniques has provided an opportunity to introduce students, faculty, and staff throughout the school to the kinds of produce that can be grown outdoors in winter.

Traci Tackett, the teacher whose classes have taken responsibility for the garden, noted one immediate benefit: ”Our cafeteria staff has found that the salads that we grow in the school garden are always more popular than salads made with produce that is trucked in.”

The school garden is creating a demand for vegetables that many students had not ever encountered in fresh form before. Sarah Belcher, a 6h grade student who has been working with the garden for the last 2 years, explains how this works:

“If you want students to eat vegetables, give them the chance to help grow the food.”

“Turnips have become the most popular here. I wouldn’t have tried many of these vegetables if it wasn’t for being able to plant them. This is something I’ll be able to remember my whole life.”

The fact that low tunnel garden beds have survived through record cold temperatures is more evidence of how useful this simple approach to gardening can be for integrating food and agriculture with the curriculum during the academic year. The students and faculty at Pikeville Elementary hope that other schools and individual families will also be able to build their own low tunnels and begin growing winter gardens.

“A lot of people imagine that it is difficult to grow produce outdoors during the winter in the mountains,” says Cathy Rehmeyer, a gardener and professor at the Kentucky College of Osteopathic Medicine who has been working with the school to establish the program. “The truth is that my home in Pikeville is at a lower elevation than Lexington, and because we are in the mountains we are sheltered from the worst of the cold winter winds that affect flatter areas of the state.” She added that another benefit to winter gardens is that they require very little weeding compared to gardening in the warm months.

Because they believe in the value of low tunnel gardening in the coalfields, Pikeville Elementary students are helping lead a free workshop on April 30th to help other schools and community members learn what it takes to build and maintain low tunnels.

>> Listen to the full story with WMMT Mountain Talk on Making Connections: Growing at School.

>> More information on how to register for the workshop is available on the Pikeville Elementary website.

>> Instructions for building and maintaining low tunnel gardens: Rehmeyer’s Mother of a Hubbard blog.