Remains of some birds.

Do you know what it's like to take delivery of 10 (or more) recently dispatched chickens? I hope you do. It's an important part of knowing our food. What I've come to realize is how important it is to me to receive them fresh and whole.

First, Why Whole?

The simple part of the answer is that it's less expensive for everyone. When they have to go through each bird and remove bones and bits, it gets expensive.

But wait! There's more.

If you've bought a chicken with it's neck attached, you know how much work there is yet to do whether you want to fry it, roast it or spatchcock it. Every cut opens up a new world of microbiology, not only for your GI tract but also to rot the bird. With the labor market tight for low paying, manual labor, the people left to that work aren't necessarily worried about your family as much as their own... and for good reason.

Second, Appreciation of our Food. The other night, we feasted on a chicken roasted over potatoes and garlic. That meal has survived memory partly due to spontaneous celebration. Our not-quite-4 year old enjoys sucking meat off the bones. His excitement was channeled into a song, Chicken On The Bone. I'll try to record it for posterity, and Prom, soon. Yesterday, I took the picked bones of that chicken and with a bag of chicken and turkey carcasses from carving pieces from our previous CSA birds, I made about 4 gallons of stock. Some of this has joined the remaining chicken meat and egg noodles for dinner tonight. This is a toe to beak meal, to be sure. As our boys grow up, I hope the learn this appreciation of buying "Chicken on the Bone" and the joy and celebration of that on which we dine.

Back to it.

It's been a long time since I've really had a chance to focus on where our food is coming from. In reality, it's a first world problem as are things like GMO foods, Organic production methods and market fairness. Without going into details, this move has had impacted our finances in many ways.

So, when Deborah Sent me off to North Manchester on Valentine's Day to get half a hog from the Hawkins Family Farm, it was quite an occassion. Just traveling that far used up 2 tanks of fuel, making it an expensive adventure. Worth it, but costly.

We're also working on this mobile pizza business. Columbus has at least a couple organizations that focus on food production. We are sure that the commitment we make to reducing the geographic footprint (a great phrase from the business plan) will be appreciated. To that end, we went quite a bit out of our way on a trip home from Bloomington.

Vogel Certified Organic Dairy is just a bit west of Franklin, IN on SR 44. It's a family run dairy, making many forms of pressed and fresh cheese, buttermilk, and other dairy items. They also raise pastured beef, pork and chicken, eggs, vegetables and fruit. They have a store on the farm open until 7pm every day. We picked up a chicken for tonight's dinner.

Roasted at 300° over a layer of sliced potatoes, garlic cloves and a little onion for 4 hours. Breast side down. Should be a good dinner.

I'm going to try to source a lot of ingredients from the Vogels. What they have is a bit advanced for a typical Old MacDonald Farm. But our brief time talking last night showed evidence of a family doing something they really enjoy and, as evidenced by the empty cheese shelves, they're really good at.

More on them soon. I promise.

Back for Twenty-twelve.

2011 was a tough year for knowing our farmers. We started with a 20cf freezer of beef, pork and chicken and we're down to about 20 pounds of "beef for boiling" and "Soup Bones". Near the end of the month, I'll head up to Bippus and we'll be restocked with piggy but it doesn't solve the problem.

We need to find some local farmers.

It's really that simple and it's really that important. By finding local farms with which to feed our family, we ensure the health of a human ecosystem, consumer, farmer, animal, plant, soil, Earth. We also enrich the community by making a better case for other farmers to make a business case for offering the same. It's not entirely altruistic, however. Food grown responsibly, with an eye on the consumer and the other on the health of the farm and neither on the cash (at the time of labor), tastes better and I'm not driving 3 hours just to get food. I would but it isn't happening.

So this year we'll make relationships with farms, farmers, pigs, cows, chickens, broccoli and carrots. We'll get to know the dogs and cats, husbands, wives, sons, daughters and hangers-on. We have to. It's our responsibility. No excuses.

At the same time, I need to find suppliers for The Flatrock Flatbread Company. We'll start with local meats and vegetables. Finding the right cheese supplier shouldn't be too hard. But the flour could be tricky.
As bread people know, flour is everything. Dough turned crust is the most expressive part of the pizza art. It's the color, taste and aroma of the oven. It's the foundation for topping delivery. It, by itself, is pizza. To be "authentic" pizza pros around the globe import Italian 00 flour and Italian tomatoes and cheese. I don't buy into that. Indiana tomatoes and cheeses are delightful. Grain grows all around me. I'm going to use it. It just may take time finding the right wheat blend and learning how to mill it perfectly, money to buy all the extra equipment, and patience to try again and again to get it perfect. But I'm certainly willing to try.